It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 10th.
Today's word is mea culpa, spelled as two words as they would be in Latin, M-E-A-C-U-L-P-A.
Mea culpa is a noun.
It's used as a formal acknowledgement of personal fault or error.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the age of Melbourne, Australia.
His apology was the best public mea culpa of this century.
It was delivered without hesitation, qualification, or blame shifting.
Mea culpa means through my fault in Latin.
Said by itself,
it's an exclamation of apology or remorse that is used to mean it was my fault or I apologize.
Mea culpa is also a noun, however.
A newspaper might issue a mea culpa for printing inaccurate information,
or a politician might give a speech making mea culpas for past wrongdoings.
Mea culpa is one of many English terms that come from the Latin culpa, meaning guilt.
Some other examples are culpable, meaning meriting condemnation or blame,
especially as wrong or harmful, culprit, Meaning,
one guilty of a crime or a fault, and exculpate, meaning, two clear from alleged fault or guilt.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
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