15 December 2013

suborn

[suh-bawrn]

verb (used with object)

1. to bribe or induce (someone) unlawfully or secretly to perform some misdeed or to commit a crime.
2. Law.
a. to induce (a person, especially a witness) to give false testimony.
b. to obtain (false testimony) from a witness.

Origin:
1525–35; < Latin subornāre to instigate secretly, orig., to supply, equivalent to sub- sub- + ornāre to equip; see adorn

Related forms
sub·or·na·tion [suhb-awr-ney-shuhn], noun
sub·or·na·tive [suh-bawr-nuh-tiv], adjective
sub·orn·er, noun
un·sub·orned, adjective

Anagram

Rubs on

Today’s aphorism

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

– Marcus Tullius Cicero

On this day

15 December 1970 – Russia’s Venera 7 spacecraft lands on Venus, the first man-made object to land on the planet. It was launched on 15 August 1970.