It's the Word of the Day podcast for July 12th.
Today's word is impunity, spelled I-M-P-U-N-I-T-Y.
Impunity is a noun.
It's usually used in the phrase with impunity,
referring to exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Boston Globe.
For his part, artist Adam Levé doesn't expect to see his painting again.
Still,
he feels compelled to speak out publicly about what happened and has asked on his Instagram account and on Reddit for anyone with information about the heist or who might have seen his painting appear somewhere to come forward.
If anything,
he just wants to let potential area art thieves know they can't steal from local artists with impunity.
The word impunity, like the words pain, penal,
and punish, traces to the Latin noun pina, meaning punishment.
Pina, in turn, comes from the Greek word poignée, meaning payment or penalty.
Impunity has been around since the 1500s.
In 1660, Englishman Roger Koch wrote, While royals may act with impunity more easily than others,
the word impunity can be applied to beings great and small.
Take for example this 2023 quote from the Sidmouth Herald in England.
Visit MiriamWebster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.