abet [ME] If you abet someone these days you are very likely to be up to no good, but this was not always the case. In Middle English an abet could be an incitement to evil, and the verb could be both urging to do evil and an encouragement to promote well-being. Aid and abet has been used since the mid 17th century. Abet comes from the Old French word abeter, ‘urge on, deceive, harass’. Bait [ME] has a similar root.