extenuate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 22 July 2024

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 22, 2024 is:

extenuate • \ik-STEN-yuh-wayt\ • verb

Extenuate is a formal word that is most often used to mean “to lessen the strength or effect of something, such as a risk.” In legal use, to extenuate a crime, offense, etc., is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness or extent by making partial excuses.

// Developers are trying to extenuate the various risks associated with the product.

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Examples:

“Oedipus, paragon of problem-solvers, discovers by the end of the play the limits of his own keen intellect. In trying to outrun his fate, he learns that he is part of a design that is larger than his understanding. But it is as a victim of fate that he finds the freedom to assume a courageous responsibility for deeds committed in ignorance. ... Nothing can extenuate the horror of acts he spent his adult life trying to avoid.” — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Sept. 2022

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Extenuate is most familiar in the phrase “extenuating circumstances,” which refers to situations or facts that provide a partial justification or excuse for something. The word extenuate can, however, also be used all on its own. Its most typical use is with the meaning “to lessen the strength or effect of something, such as a risk,” but it also has legal use closely related to the meaning of “extenuating circumstances”; to extenuate a crime, offense, etc., is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness or extent by making partial excuses. Extenuate didn’t get its start in this semantic territory, however. It was borrowed into English in the 1500s with a now-archaic meaning it took directly from its Latin forebear, extenuare: “to make light of; to treat as unimportant.” Extenuate is today mostly at home in technical and legal contexts, but it occasionally appears in general writing with what may be a developing meaning: “to prolong, worsen, or exaggerate.” This meaning, which is likely influenced by the words extend and accentuate, is not yet fully established.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for July 22nd.
0:11.0	Today's word is extenuate, spelled E T e n u a t e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e t e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e t e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e t e e e e e e e e t e e e e t e e e t e t e t e e e e most often used to mean to lessen the strength or effect of something such as a risk.
0:25.7	In legal use to extenuate a crime or offense is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness
0:32.4	or extent by making partial excuses.
0:35.0	Here's the word used in a sentence from the LA Times by Charles McNulty.
0:40.0	Eedipus, Paragon of Problem Solvers, discovers by the end of the play the limits of his own keen intellect.
0:47.0	In trying to outrun his fate, he learns that he is part of a design that is larger than his understanding, but it is as a victim of
0:56.0	fate that he finds the freedom to assume a courageous responsibility for deeds committed in
1:01.5	ignorance. Nothing can extenuate the horror of acts he
1:06.1	spent his adult life trying to avoid. Extenuate is most familiar in the phrase
1:12.4	extenuating circumstances, which refers to situations or facts
1:17.1	that provide a partial justification or excuse for something. The word extenuate can, however, also be used all on its own. Its most typical use is with
1:28.3	the meaning to lessen the strength or effect of something such as a risk.
1:33.0	But it also has legal use closely related to the meaning of extenuating circumstances.
1:39.1	To extenuate a crime or offense is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness or extent by making partial excuses.
1:47.0	Extenuate didn't get its start in this semantic territory, however.
1:51.0	It was borrowed into English in the 1500s with a now archaic
1:55.6	meaning it took directly from its Latin forebear extenuare with the meaning to make
2:00.8	light of to treat as unimportant.
2:04.0	Extenuate is today mostly at home in technical and legal contexts, but it occasionally appears
2:10.8	in general writing with what may be a developing meaning to prolong,
2:15.2	worsen, or exaggerate. This meaning, which is likely influenced by the words extend and accentuate,
	...

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