Committal

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəˈmɪtəl/

Definitions

1. The act of sending someone to a prison, institution, or court, or the act of pledging oneself to a particular course of action or belief
2. The process of formally committing an individual to an institution or the act of dedicating oneself to a specific promise, belief, or course of action
3. The procedure involved in placing someone in a facility or the undertaking of a commitment to a chosen path, ideology, or obligation

Etymology: The verb "commit" came into English in the Middle Ages from Latin "committere", a compound of "com-" (together) and "mittere" (to send), so the core idea is literally "sending together" or bringing things into one place. The sense of sending someone to prison or an institution grew naturally from that root of dispatching a person to a place, while the sense of binding oneself to a course of action drew on the idea of putting something firmly into someone's keeping. The noun "committal" is formed from "commit" plus the suffix "-al", which turns a verb into a noun of action, as in "refusal" or "arrival". The suffix itself travelled from Latin "-alis" through Old French and into Middle English, so "committal" is a fairly recent formation built on an older verb.

Synonyms: commitment, dedication

Antonyms: abandonment