extenuation

== English == === Alternative forms === extenuacion [16th C.] === Etymology === An adaptation of extenuātiōn-, the oblique stem of the Latin extenuātiō (“a thinning or diminishing”, “rarefaction”; rhetoric “a lessening”, “diminution”, “extenuation”), noun of action from extenuō (“to thin, reduce, or diminish”). Equivalent to extenuate +‎ -ion. Compare the French exténuation. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪksˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən/, /ɛksˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən/ Rhymes: -eɪʃən === Noun === extenuation (countable and uncountable, plural extenuations) (countable and uncountable) The action of extenuating; extenuated condition. The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation. 1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19: A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs. (of air, obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction. 1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2: Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun. (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this. (obsolete) The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame or punishment). 1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18: The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme. 1707, Atterbury, Serm. v. (1723), volume II, page 159: What Deeds of Charity we have to alledge in Extenuation of our Punishment. The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms. (rhetoric, obsolete) A figure in which a term is used which, in contrast with the more fitting term it supplants, understates or seeks to diminish the significance of something. 1589, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.), page 227: We call him the Disabler or figure of Extenuation. 1823, in Crabb, Technol. Dict. The action of lessening, or seeking to lessen, the guilt of (an offence or fault) by alleging partial excuses; and instance or means of doing this; a plea in mitigation of censure. ante 1674, Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180: He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins. ante 1832, Jeremy Bentham, Wks. (1843), volume I, page 174: The differences of castes…furnish a copious stock of extenuations…to different classes of offences. 1839, Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, volume I, page 28: In extenuation of a noble error. (US, humorous, in the plural as “extenuations”) Thin garments. ==== Derived terms ==== in extenuation of === References === “Extenuation” listed on page 460/2–3 of § 2 (E, ed. Henry Bradley) of volume III (D–E, 1897) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)