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Apr 10, 2013
This week's theme
Terms from law

This week's words
lex loci
hereditament
suborn
mens rea
attorn

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

suborn

PRONUNCIATION:
(suh-BORN)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To induce another to perform an unlawful act or give false testimony.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin subornare, from sub- (secretly) + ornare (to equip). Other words that derive from ornare are adorn and ornate. Earliest documented use: 1534.

USAGE:
"Would a senior lawyer, proven in a court of law to attempt to suborn a witness, be allowed to continue to practice law?"
TSR Subramanian; It's Imperative to Free CBI and ED from Government Control; The New Indian Express (Chennai, India); Mar 3, 2013.

"Regulators were suborned by lobbyists and ministers."
Simon Jenkins; Ignore Their Howls of Protest; The Guardian (London, UK); Mar 5, 2013.

See more usage examples of suborn in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If words are to enter men's minds and bear fruit, they must be the right words shaped cunningly to pass men's defenses and explode silently and effectually within their minds. -J.B. Phillips, writer and clergyman (1906-1982)

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