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Oct 13, 2016
This week’s theme
Verbs

This week’s words
confute
propine
flocculate
absolve
objurgate

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

absolve

PRONUNCIATION:
(ab-ZOLV, -solv)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To free from guilt, blame, responsibility, obligation, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin absolvere (to set free), from solvere (to loosen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leu- (to loosen, divide), which also gave us forlorn, lag, loss, solve, analysis, resolute, and catalyst. Earliest documented use: 1475.

USAGE:
“His Eminence might also be able to absolve us of the original sin of being Mets fans, which is purgatory on Earth.”
Denis Hamill; Oh, the Pain of Mets Fans; New York Daily News; Jul 5, 2015.

See more usage examples of absolve in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You can't do anything with anybody's body to make it dirty to me. Six people, eight people, one person -- you can do only one thing to make it dirty: kill it. Hiroshima was dirty. -Lenny Bruce, comedian and social critic (13 Oct 1925-1966)

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