different between clemency vs reprieve

English

Etymology

From Latin cl?mentia.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kl?.m?n.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?.m?n.si/, /?kl?.m?nt.si/

Noun

clemency (countable and uncountable, plural clemencies)

1. The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing.
   • 2010, Priyamvada Gopal, The Guardian, 4 May 2010:

     A death sentence for Kasab, seen to represent Pakistan, will be widely supported in a frenzy of righteous retribution. Presidential clemency is politically improbable.

2. (law) A pardon, commutation, or similar reduction, removal, or postponement of legal penalties by an executive officer of a state.
3. (now rare) Mildness of weather.

Related terms

• clement

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• repryve (obsolete), reprive (rare)

Etymology

1571, in sense of “to take back to prison”, from Middle English repryen (“to remand, detain”) (1494), probably from Middle French repris, form of reprendre (“take back”); cognate to reprise. Sense generalized, but retains connotations of punishment and execution. Noun attested 1598. Compare to Latin privare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???p?i?v/
• Hyphenation: re?prieve

Verb

reprieve (third-person singular simple present reprieves, present participle reprieving, simple past and past participle reprieved)

1. (transitive) To cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially an execution.
2. (transitive) To bring relief to someone.

   • Company […] may reprieve a man from his melancholy, yet it cannot secure him from his conscience.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To take back to prison (in lieu of execution).

Derived terms

• reprieval

Related terms

• reprise
• reprisal
• reprehend

Noun

reprieve (plural reprieves)

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

1. The cancellation or postponement of a punishment.
2. A document authorizing such an action.
3. Relief from pain etc., especially temporary.

Translations

References