Jan 31, 2026 · In religious use it refers to barely adequate time for confession before execution. // Certain neighborhoods have received short shrift from the city government.

Oct 16, 2024 · To exact something is to not only demand it, but also obtain it. The most common things exacted—revenge, retribution, and that ilk—often require physical force, but other things …

Jun 30, 2025 · In medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, a series of dots was used to mark mistakes or to label material that should be deleted from a text, and those deletion dots—known as puncta …

May 7, 2018 · A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by the selection and execution of one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. …

Aug 7, 2025 · Adjudicate, which is usually used to mean “to make an official decision about who is right in a dispute,” is one of several terms that give testimony to the influence of jus, the Latin word for “law,”

Dec 9, 2010 · At Burke's execution (by hanging), irate crowds shouted "Burke him!" As a result of the case, the word "burke" became a byword first for death by suffocation or strangulation and eventually …

Jun 19, 2025 · To emancipate someone (including oneself is to free them from restraint, control, or the power of another, and especially to free them from bondage or enslavement. It follows that the noun

Jan 14, 2025 · The New Latin term deus ex machina is a translation of a Greek phrase and means literally 'a god from a machine.' Machine, in this case, refers to the crane (yes, crane) that held a god …

Mar 31, 2024 · If you need to expiate something—that is, to atone for it—it’s sure to be something you recognize you shouldn’t have done. People expiate crimes, sins, transgressions, and the like in …

Oct 20, 2024 · These days, defenestration—from the Latin fenestra, meaning 'window'—is often used to describe the forceful removal of someone from public office or from some other advantageous …