Thursday, July 30, 2009

Suborn

Suborn: Suborn is a transitive verb, meaning it takes an object. Generally one person suborns another, meaning they cause them to do something illegal. Suborn's pronunciation (su-born) belies its etymology as suborn shares its etymology with submarine and subterranean, and even suburban which also has the misleading pronunciation (su-bur-ban). More interestingly, suborn shares its etymology with ornate and ornament, revealing its meaning to be close to sub rosa or under the table.
You can't pressure an elected official of the government into agreeing to suborn a judge.

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