Word of the Day

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Today's Word: atonement

This week's theme: Saying sorry.

atonement

(noun) [ah-TOEN-mahnt]

1. compensation for a wrong: "Money is no atonement for something so wrong."

2. (the Atonement) the death of Jesus seen as reconciling God and mankind

Origin

Approximately 1510; from the phrase 'at one (in harmony)' + '-ment'; perhaps modeled on Latin, 'adunare': unite ('ad-': to, at + 'unum': one).

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"For the first time in the trilogy, a woman takes the main role in Vengeance, allowing Park to explore a different kind of revenge.

'Had it been a man in her place I don't think he would have handed over the revenge to somebody else,' the 42-year-old explained.

'This idea of atonement and our relationship with the feeling of guilt is stronger in women than it is in men so it can better be expressed by a woman.'

Lee, who also worked with Park on his breakthrough 2000 film 'JSA: Joint Security Area', said the switch to a heroine had drawn many women into theatres."

Mike Collett-White. "Venice embraces South Korean 'Vengeance' film," Reuters (September 5, 2005).

"The second incident was the killing of a Catholic man outside of a pub. The McCartney murder had the IRA's signature all over it, with volunteers dispatched after a brutal knifing to clean up the crime scene and threaten witnesses into silence. But the wife and sister of the dead man broke with the usual community code of silence and demanded justice. The whole thing became a public-relations nightmare for the IRA. Subsequently, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was shunned by usual supporters in the U.S. Congress and the White House. The IRA, desperately trying to stem the bad press and the loss of support among its Catholic base, offered to kill the men responsible for the murder as a way of atonement. This only added fuel to the fire, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair quickly condemned the offer."

Dominic Pritchard. "Op/Ed: IRA pledge of nonviolence awaits Protestant disarmament." Orlando Sentinel (September 5, 2005).

"Wilful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement.... No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect."

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Sixth annual message to Congress (December 3, 1906).

"What atonement is there for blood spilt upon the earth?"

Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.). Greek tragedian. The Libation Bearers.

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