amnesty

Borrowed from Middle French amnestie (Modern French amnistie), a borrowing from Latin amnestia, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία (amnēstía).

• IPA^(key): /ˈæm.nɪ.sti/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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amnesty (countable and uncountable, plural amnesties)

1. Forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion.
2. An act of the sovereign power granting oblivion, or a general pardon, for a past offense, as to subjects concerned in an insurrection.
   • Fall 2007, Gaspar Forteza, “Regarding Simón y otros: Accountability in Argentina and International Human Rights as Domestic Positive Law”, in FIU Law Review‎^[1], volume 3, number 1, →ISSN, archived from the original on 3 July 2020, pages 188, 217-218:

     Argentina has seen few legal issues as contentiously debated as these two laws of amnesty during the last two decades. […] Pursuant to the Convention on Forced Disappearance, amnesties may not contemplate a statutory limitation period less than that corresponding to the gravest crime punishable by domestic laws, provided there is a pre-existing domestic norm of “fundamental character” requiring that limitation.

   • 2013 December 18, CNN Staff, “Russia amnesty could free Pussy Riot, benefit Greenpeace members”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Russian lawmakers backed a sweeping amnesty law Wednesday that could see jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk protest band released early and arrested Greenpeace activists avoiding prison, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

   • 2023 February 11, Christian Edwards and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, “Quake-hit Turkey and Syria face years of rebuilding. Experts say it didn’t have to be this way”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     He said building amnesties were “a huge issue.”

• amnestiable
• amnestic
• Amnesty International

• amnesia

amnesty (third-person singular simple present amnesties, present participle amnestying, simple past and past participle amnestied)

1. (transitive) To grant a pardon (to a group).
   • Fall 2007, Gaspar Forteza, “Regarding Simón y otros: Accountability in Argentina and International Human Rights as Domestic Positive Law”, in FIU Law Review‎^[4], volume 3, number 1, →ISSN, archived from the original on 3 July 2020, pages 187, 229:

     Shortly after the end of military rule in 1983, the Argentinean National Congress passed legislation that effectively amnestied many persons who allegedly committed human rights violations such as torture, extra-judicial killing, and forced disappearance. […] In other words, a government may be justified in amnestying military actions because the alternative would result in the destruction of the democratic state.

   • 2019 January 19, Stephen Collinson and Maegan Vazquez, quoting Ann Coulter, “Trump’s offer of temporary protection for immigrants to end shutdown is a ‘non-starter,’ say Democrats”, in CNN‎^[5]:

     “100 miles of border wall in exchange for amnestying millions of illegals. So if we grant citizenship to a BILLION foreigners, maybe we can finally get a full border wall,” Coulter wrote in another tweet.

   • 2022 August 8, Radina Gigova, quoting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Amnesty regrets ‘distress’ caused by report on Ukrainian military, but stands by findings”, in CNN‎^[6]:

     “This is such immoral selectivity,” he added. “Anyone who amnesties Russia and who artificially creates a such informational context where some attacks by terrorists are supposedly justified or supposedly understandable cannot fail to understand that, in doing so, they are helping the terrorists.”

   • 2024 January 11, Zachary B. Wolf, quoting Ron DeSantis, “The 2024 primary campaigns have already changed the Republican Party”, in CNN‎^[7]:

     “The number of people that will be amnestied when I’m president is zero,” DeSantis said, when asked if he would allow any of the 10 million to stay in the US.

• “amnesty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “amnesty”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “amnesty”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Manteys, Matneys, Yetmans, maytens