embezzle

“embezzle”（见该词条）的变体。

"将委托给自己或属于雇主的资金盗窃或挪用"，1540年代，来自 embezzle + -ment。早期的名词是 embezzling（15世纪早期）。

[I]n English law, a peculiar form of theft, which is distinguished from the ordinary crime in two points:— (1) It is committed by a person who is in the position of clerk or servant to the owner of the property stolen; and (2) the property when stolen is in the possession of such clerk or servant. The definition of embezzlement as a special form of theft arose out of the difficulties caused by the legal doctrine that to constitute larceny the property must be taken out of the possession of the owner. Servants and others were thus able to steal with impunity goods entrusted to them by their masters. A statute of Henry VIII. (1529) was passed to meet this case; and it enacted that it should be felony in servants to convert to their own use caskets, jewels, money, goods or chattels delivered to them by their masters. [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910]

在英国法律中，这是一种特殊的盗窃形式，与普通犯罪有两个不同之处：（1）它是由处于财产所有者职位的职员或仆人犯下的； （2）当财产被盗窃时，它在这样的职员或仆人的掌握中。将挪用罪定义为盗窃的一种特殊形式，是由于法律学说造成的困难，即构成盗窃必须将财产从所有者的掌握中取出。仆人和其他人因此能够安然无恙地盗窃由主人委托给他们的货物。亨利八世的一项法令（1529年）就是为了解决这个问题； 它规定，仆人将主人交付给他们的盒子、珠宝、钱财、货物或动产挪用为自己的行为应被定为重罪。[ Encyclopaedia Britannica，1910]