expiate

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The Word of the Day for May 26 is:

expiate   \EK-spee-ayt\   verb
     transitive
     1 : to extinguish the guilt incurred by 
    *2 : to make amends for 
     intransitive : to make expiation

Example sentence: 
     "It seemed to me that I was hurried on by an inevitable and unseen fate to 
this day of misery, and that now I was to expiate all my offences at the 
gallows...." (Daniel Defoe, _Moll Flanders_)  

Did you know? 
     "Disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate." 
That ominous biblical prophecy (_Isaiah_ 47:11 RSV) shows that "expiate" was 
once involved in confronting the forces of evil as well as in assuaging guilt. 
The word derives from "expiare," Latin for "to atone for," a root that in turn 
traces to the Latin term for "pious." "Expiate" originally referred to warding 
off evil by using sacred rites, or to using sacred rites to cleanse or purify 
something. By the 17th century, Shakespeare (and others) were using it to mean 
"to put an end to": "But when in thee time's furrows I behold, / Then look I 
death my days should expiate" ("Sonnet 22"). Those senses have since become 
obsolete, and now only the "extinguish the guilt" and "make amends" senses 
remain in use. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.




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