α. 1500s– amende honourable, 1600s– amende honorable, 1700s amand honourable, 1700s– amande honorable.
β. 1600s–1700s amends honourable, 1700s amends honorable.
amende honorablen.
/aˌmɒ̃d ɒnəˈrɑːbl(ə)/, U.S. /ˌɑˌmɑnd ˌɔnəˈrɑbl(ə)/, /ˌɑˌmɑ̃d ˌɔnəˈrɑbl(ə)/ As singular count or mass noun.
1. Originally and chiefly with reference to France or French-speaking countries: a humiliating public act of confession and request for pardon required from an offender. historical after 18th cent.Such an action could either constitute a punishment in its own right or form part of a more severe penalty, up to and including execution.
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society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > atonement > [noun] > public
amende honorable1562
amende1724
1562 R. Fills tr. Lawes & Statutes Geneua f. 69v Item, that none shall renounce, despyte, or maugre God, vpon payne of amende honourable, wyth a torche in hys hande.
1694 tr. E. Benoist Hist. Famous Edict of Nantes I. viii. 442 The Inquisition caus'd him to be Arrested; condemn'd him to the Amende Honourable; to be kept in Prison a year and a day, and to the Confiscation of all his Goods.
1788 Genuine Mem. Dennis O'Kelly 51 The court..contrived to compromise it on the following terms.—He first made his amande honorable; then begged pardon in the public prints.
1849 J. Pardoe Court & Reign Francis I I. xi. 195 He condemned him to make the amende honorable before the church of Notre Dame, and to avow that he had spoken against the truth and the king.
1976 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 120 445/1 Fined forty livres and sentenced to perform amende honorable, he could be considered to have gotten off lightly.
1997 French Hist. Stud. 20 576 The parlement upheld his original sentence—that he perform an amende honorable..then that he be hanged and his body burned.
2. In extended use: a public admission of guilt or error intended to make amends for an offence or insult; (more generally) any act undertaken by way of recompense or compensation for a wrong.
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1675 Woman turn'd Bully iii. i. 35 Resolve, sweet Sir, either to give me Amende honorable, or fight. Chuse which you please: you see I am reasonable.
1683 C. Wase tr. Cicero Five Days Deb. Tusculum ii. x. 109 He stands by Jove condemn'd, An amends honourable to pay.
1796 M. Wollstonecraft Let. 26 Oct. (2003) 372 I think, as amende honorable , you ought to read my answer to Mr. Burke.
1890 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 10 June 4/2 He makes the amende honorable, however, by informing us that it was said in his haste and retracted in his cooler moments.
1920 H. A. Shute Real Diary of Worst Farmer 257 The sole amende honorable is to distribute among our friends the component parts of a hog.
1998 Financial Times 1 Aug. p. vi An amende honorable is owed to Live from London, where Simon Fanshawe may well be turning into a decent host.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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