Amnestying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of officially forgiving or excusing individuals for prior transgressions occurs in a formal context
2. This entails the act of releasing individuals from accountability for previous crimes or misconduct under specific legal frameworks
3. The act of officially pardoning individuals for past illegal actions, excusing them from legal consequences

Etymology: "Amnestying" is the present participle of "amnesty", so it is simply the act of granting an amnesty. The noun itself reaches English through Middle French "amnestie", later "amnistie", from Latin "amnestia", which was borrowed from Ancient Greek "amnēstia", meaning "forgetfulness" or "a forgetting". The Greek root is "mnēstis" (remembrance) with the negative prefix "a-", so the underlying idea is a deliberate act of not remembering wrongs. That literal sense of forgetting is the heart of the story. A formal amnesty does not declare that an offence was innocent; it instructs the state to set the record aside, so that past acts can no longer be pursued. The Greek word's logic survives intact in the modern legal sense: the transgression is still on record, but officially set aside as something no one will be punished for.

Synonyms: pardoning, forgiving