“盗窃或挪用信任中或属于雇主的资金”，这个词最早出现在1540年代，由 embezzle（挪用）和 -ment（名词后缀）组合而成。早期的名词形式是 embezzling（挪用公款），出现在15世纪初。
[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，挪用公款是一种特殊形式的盗窃，与普通盗窃有两个主要区别：（1）它是由处于财物所有者的书记或仆人职位的人实施的；（2）被盗的财物在被盗时是由该书记或仆人所持有的。挪用公款作为盗窃的特殊形式的定义，源于法律上认为盗窃必须是将财物从所有者手中夺走的这一原则。这使得仆人等人能够肆无忌惮地盗窃主人托付给他们的财物。亨利八世于1529年通过了一项法律，以应对这一问题；该法律规定，仆人若将主人交给他们的箱子、珠宝、金钱、商品或其他财物挪为己用，将构成重罪。[ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910]
