Word of the Day

: January 12, 2010

suborn

verb suh-BORN

What It Means

1 : to induce secretly to do an unlawful thing

2 : to induce to commit perjury; also : to obtain (perjured testimony) from a witness

suborn in Context

"In the first place, a jury could not easily be suborned by any one." (Theodore Dreiser, The Financier)

Did You Know?

The Latin word that gave us "suborn" in the early part of the 16th century is "subornare," which translates literally as "to secretly furnish or equip." The "sub-" that brings the "secretly" meaning to "subornare" more commonly means "under" or "below," but it has its stealthy denotation in the etymologies of several other English words, including "surreptitious" (from "sub-" and "rapere," meaning "to seize") and the verb "suspect" (from "sub-" or "sus-" and "specere," meaning "to look at"). The "ornare" of "subornare" is also at work in the words "ornate," "adorn," and "ornament."