Absolution

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /æb.səˈljuː.ʃn̩/

Definitions

1. The act of freeing someone from guilt, blame, or the consequences of wrongdoing, typically through formal religious forgiveness or official pardon
2. formal release from guilt or sin granted by religious authority or through official pardon
3. the act of declaring someone free from blame, wrongdoing, or its consequences through authorized forgiveness

Etymology: Absolution began as a courtroom word. The Latin "absolūtiō" meant "acquittal," a verdict that set a defendant free, and it came from "absolvere," "to loosen" or "release" from something that bound you. Its core image is untying: the Latin verb combined "ab-," "away from," with "solvere," "to loosen," so to absolve someone was to unfasten them from a charge. The word passed into Middle English as "absolucion" and reached English through Old French "absolution." Its religious sense, the priest's declaration that a penitent's sins are forgiven, grew out of the legal meaning, and that is the sense most readers now associate with it. The legal meaning did not disappear; the older idea of being formally cleared of a charge still underlies the modern noun.

Synonyms: forgiveness, pardon, exoneration, acquittal, release

Antonyms: condemnation, punishment, blame, guilt