attainder

English

From Anglo-Norman ataindre ("to reach"), with infinitives used as nouns being frequent in Law French. Doublet of attain and attinge.

attainder (plural attainders)

(law, rare) The state a prisoner enters once a death sentence (usually for treason) had been issued; the state of being stripped of all civil rights.
- 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 139:
  Grandpa Piper led thereto by the arm […] and himself thrust into a chair, to support the character of dummy to Henry's prearranged attainder.
(archaic) A stain; a state of dishonour or condemnation.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], line 32:
  He lived from all attainder of suspects.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 230:
  Some of the horses were registered under phony papers, their sires having been ruled off the track as doped or doctored. The hereditary attainder rule was very strict.

the state of a prisoner after a death sentence