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ultima ratio. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ultima ratio, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ultima ratio in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin .
Noun
ultima ratio (uncountable)
- (law) legal philosophy under which penal redress to crime should only be used as a measure of last resort
2020, Máximo Langer, “Penal Abolitionism and Criminal Law Minimalism: Here and There, Now and Then”, in Harvard Law Review, volume 134, number 42, page 73:Since punishment (including death and prison in the United States) is the harshest type of public measure or burden that the state may take or impose against an individual and the state has the duty to consider the rights and interests of all people involved or affected by a situation (including those who cause harm), the ultima ratio principle requires that less harmful responses or measures, including noncriminal ones, be adopted if those responses or measures would adequately advance a legitimate goal such as addressing harmful behavior.
Italian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Latin ultima ratiō, from the phrase ultima ratiō rēgum (“last resort of the kings”) that King Louis XIV of France had cast on the cannons made in 1650, and the similar one, ultima ratiō rēgis (“last resort of the king”), put by King Frederick II of Prussia on cannons after 1742, both almost certainly inspired by Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer Pedro Calderón de la Barca, who, in one of his works of comedy, defined artillery as ultima razón de Reyes (“last resort of kings”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈul.ti.ma ˈrat.t͡sjo/
- Rhymes: -attsjo
- Hyphenation: ùl‧ti‧ma‧rà‧tio
Noun
ultima ratio f (invariable)
- (uncommon) last resort
- Synonym: extrema ratio
Further reading
- ultima ratio in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana