exonerate

From Latin exonerāt-, the participle stem of exonerāre, from exonerō (“to discharge, to unload; to exonerate”), from ex- (“a prefix denoting privation”) + onerō (“to burden, to lade, to load”) (from onus (“burden, load”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os (“burden, load”), from *h₃enh₂- (“to charge, to onerate”)). Cognate with French exonérer.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɒnəɹeɪt/, /ɛɡ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑnəˌɹeɪt/, /ɛɡ-/

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• Hyphenation: ex‧o‧ner‧ate

exonerate (third-person singular simple present exonerates, present participle exonerating, simple past and past participle exonerated)

1. (transitive, now rare) To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).
2. (obsolete, reflexive) Of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself).
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section ii, member 3, page 231:

     I would examine the Caſpian Sea, and ſee where and how it exonerates it ſelfe, after it hath taken in Volga, Iaxares, Oxus, and thoſe great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where?

3. (transitive) To free from an obligation, responsibility or task.
4. (transitive) To free from accusation or blame.

   Synonyms: acquit, exculpate

• exonerated (adjective)
• exoneration
• exonerative
• exonerator

exonerate

1. (archaic) Freed from an obligation; freed from accusation or blame; acquitted, exonerated.

exonerāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of exonerō