Word of the Day: Pardon
par-don / ˈpär-dᵊn
noun
1. an act of excusing an offense without giving consequences
No love or pity, pardon or excuse should soften the sharp pang of reparation for the guilty man.
Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888
2. an official release from penalty
I don’t mind giving 5,000 pardons a day.
Rodrigo Duterte, 1945-
3. forgiveness of a fault or offense
Where there is injury let me sow pardon.
Francis of Assisi, c. 1181-1226
verb
1. to release from the penalties of an offense or crime
God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.
Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887
2. to forgive
We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.
Voltaire, 1694-1778
Etymology
(verb and noun): from the Late Latin perdonare (combining the classical Latin intensive prefix per (thoroughly, completely) and the verb donare (to give) through the Old French perdoner.
Etymology provided by Allen Ward.
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
