extenuation

See also: exténuation

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 (“I thin, reduce, or diminish”). Equivalent to extenuate +‎ -ion. Compare the French exténuation.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪksˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən/, /ɛksˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

extenuation (countable and uncountable, plural extenuations)

(countable and uncountable) The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
1. The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
  - 1576, Jewell of Health, Baker, page 171 a:
    This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.
  - 1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19:
    A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.
  - 1707, Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, page 183:
    Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations.
  - 1781 October 27, Johnson, Let. Mrs. Thrale:
    The extenuation is her only bad symptom.
  - 1825, Betrothed, Walter Scott, section XXX:
    The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation.
  - 1828, “Biog.”, in Ann. Reg., page 474/2:
    Some pallid from extenuation.
2. (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.
3. (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.
  - 1619, John Donne, Serm., xiv, page 140:
    All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.
  - 1665, Sir T. Herbert, Trav., published 1677, page 186:
    The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.
  - 1777, Joseph Priestley, chapter XIX, in Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, volume I, published 1782, page 229:
    Gregory the Great…says that God penetrates everything without extenuation.
4. (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.
  - c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], line 22:
    Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.
  - 1654, H. L’Estrange, Chas. I, published 1655, page 1:
    The gallantry of Henry’s heroique spirit tended somewhat to the…extenuation of Charles his glory.
  - 1707, Atterbury, Serm. v. (1723), volume II, page 159:
    What Deeds of Charity we have to alledge in Extenuation of our Punishment.
5. The action of representing (something) as slight and trifling; underrating; an instance of this, a plea to this end; a modification in terms.
  - 1614, Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., page 209:
    Sometimes…wee humble ourselves lower than there is cause…And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selves.
  - 1621, Anat. Mel., Burton, ii.i.iv.ii.228:
    Through their…extenuation [of their grievance], wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves.
  - 1722, Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, published 1840, page 6:
    Many died of it every day, so that now all our extenuations abated.
  - 1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, ii. (1865), page 13/2:
    The utmost they allow is an extenuation of its absolute necessity.
  - 1873, R.F. Calixte, translated by A.V.S. Sligo, The Life of the Venerable Anna Maria Taigi, page 303:
    The simple matter-of-fact style of the narrative is, from its unobtrusive character, more adapted for spiritual reading than the views and generalisations, and prologetic extenuations of more recent biographers.
  1. (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.
    - 1657, J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., page 56:
      When for extenuation sake we use a lighter and more easie word or terme then the matter requires.
    - 1706, Phillips:
    - 1823, in Crabb, Technol. Dict.
6. 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.
  - 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ii., xxvii., page 156:
    Extenuation, by which the Crime, that seemed great, is made lesse.
  - ante 1674, Clarendon, Surv. Leviath. (1676), page 180:
    He…was to find excuses and extenuations for sins.
  - 1712, Addison, Spect., № 297, ¶ 1:
    Whatever may be said for the Extenuation of such Defects.
  - 1750, Johnson, Rambler, № 39, ¶ 7:
    It may be urged, in extenuation of this crime…that [etc.].
  - 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.
7. (US, humorous, in the plural as “extenuations”) Thin garments.
  - 1881 May, G.W. Cable, Scribner’s Mag., page 23:
    They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet.
  - 1883 September 12, Pall Mall G., page 2/2:
    One side wore…extenuations of a…green colour.

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.)