expiate
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 31, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n expiate • \\EK-spee-ayt\\ • verb
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Expiate is a formal word that typically means \u201cto atone or make amends for something, such as a sin or offense.\u201d
\n\n// Although the editorial had characterized the mayor's failure to disclose the details of the meeting as a lapse that could not be expiated, many of the city's citizens seemed ready to forgive all.
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\u201cGodzilla has long been seen as a symbolic representation of the nuclear devastation that Japan suffered, and that theme is evident here as well. But Godzilla Minus One adds a more personal dimension in the form of Koichi\u2019s lingering trauma; the only way he thinks he\u2019ll be able to expiate his guilt is by destroying the monster.\u201d \u2014 Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Dec. 2023
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If you need to expiate something\u2014that is, to atone for it\u2014it\u2019s sure to be something you recognize you shouldn\u2019t have done. People expiate crimes, sins, transgressions, and the like in various ways, such as by apologizing or trying to undo damage they\u2019ve caused. The word comes from the Latin verb expiare (\u201cto atone for\u201d), a combination of ex- and piare, which itself means \u201cto atone for\u201d as well as \u201cto appease.\u201d (Piare comes from pius, meaning \u201cfaithful, pious.\u201d) The current use of expiate dates to the early 1600s, and in the early 1500s expiate could mean something else entirely: \u201cto put an end to.\u201d Shakespeare used it this way in Sonnet 22: \u201cBut when in thee time\u2019s furrows I behold, / Then look I death my days should expiate.\u201d Later, expiate was a synonym of avert, as in this biblical prophecy: \u201cDisaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate\u201d (Isaiah 47:11, RSV). Vestiges of these literary uses still cling to the word, which is most often found in formal, quasi-literary contexts.
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