A person who is cowardly, dishonorable, or morally worthless; a despicable individual.
From Old French caitif (captive, wretched), derived from Latin captivus. The semantic shift occurred because captives came to symbolize weakness and degradation in medieval society.
Shakespeare used 'caitiff' as a powerful insult—it packed the sting of calling someone both a coward AND a prisoner in one word, making it a favorite of Elizabethan insult-writers.
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