past exonerative
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
5
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The notional past tense of non-apology apologies like "mistakes were made", in which a speaker uses the passive voice (and past tense) and careful wording to avoid imputing intent or blame for a failure.
Example Sentences
- "When deniability is impossible, dissociation is the way, and the past exonerative allows the actor to separate himself from the act."
- "The President expressed himself in what might be called the past exonerative, a verb tense politicians use when they're in trouble."
- "Now the past exonerative and other slippery passive usages are rampant (or should that be, are being run rampantly?) throughout the press."