exonerate

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English

WOTD – 10 July 2017, 10 April 2021

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English exoneraten (attested in past participle exonerated), from Latin exonerātus, past perfect participle of exonerō (“to discharge, unload; to exonerate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Exonerō is from ex- (“out, from”) +‎ onerō (“to burden, lade; to load”) further from onus (oner-) (“a burden, load”) +‎ -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os (“burden, load”), from *h₃enh₂- (“to charge, onerate”). Compare French exonérer.

Verb

exonerate (third-person singular simple present exonerates, present participle exonerating, simple past and past participle exonerated)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).
  2. (obsolete, reflexive) Of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself).
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section ii, member 3, page 231:
      I would examine the Caſpian Sea, and ſee where and how it exonerates it ſelfe, after it hath taken in Volga, Iaxares, Oxus, and thoſe great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where?
  3. (transitive) To free (someone) from an obligation, responsibility or task.
  4. (transitive) To free (someone) from accusation or blame.
    Synonyms: acquit, exculpate; see also Thesaurus:acquit
Derived terms
Translations
of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself)
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Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Latin exonerātus (more at etymology 1), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Adjective

exonerate (comparative more exonerate, superlative most exonerate)

  1. (archaic) Freed from an obligation; freed from accusation or blame; acquitted, exonerated.

Latin

Verb

exonerāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of exonerō

Spanish

Verb

exonerate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of exonerar combined with te
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