It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 10th.

Today's word is Meaculpa, spelled as two words as the would be in Latin.

M-E-A-C-U-L-P-A.

Mea-C-C-U-L-P-A. Mea-C-U-L-P-A. It's used as a formal acknowledgement of personal fault or error. Here's the word used in a sentence from the age of Melbourne, Australia. His apology was the best public mea-culpa of this century. It was delivered without hesitation, qualification,

or blame shifting. Meaculpa means through my fault in Latin. Said by itself, it's an exclamation

of apology or remorse that is used to mean it was my fault or I apologize. Mea Culpah is also a noun, however.

A newspaper might issue a Mea Culpah for printing inaccurate information,

or a politician might give a speech making Mea Culpas for past wrongdoings.

Mea Culpta is one of many English terms that come from the Latin Culpta, meaning guilt.

Some other examples are culpable, meaning meriting condemnation or blame, especially as wrong or harmful. Culprate,

meaning one guilty of a crime or a fault, and exculpate, meaning to clear from alleged fault or

guilt.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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