impunity

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The Word of the Day for April 17 is:

impunity   \im-PYOO-nuh-tee\   noun
     : exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss

Example sentence:
     The emperor was shocked and dismayed by the rebellion of a 
people whom he had so long oppressed with impunity.

Did you know? 
     Kings behaving with impunity can be a royal pain -- which 
makes sense etymologically. "Impunity" (like the 
words "pain," "penal," and "punish") traces to the Latin 
noun "poena," meaning "punishment." The Latin word, in turn, 
came from Greek "poine," meaning "payment" or "penalty." Leaders 
acting with impunity have prompted use of the word since the 
1500s, as in this 1660 example by Englishman Roger Coke: "This 
unlimited power of doing anything with impunity, will only beget 
a confidence in kings of doing what they list [desire]." 
But "impunity" can be applied to the lowliest of beings as well 
as the loftiest: "Certain beetles have learned to detoxify 
[willow] leaves in their digestive tract so they can eat them 
with impunity" (_Smithsonian_, September 1986).