28 July 2014

veto

[vee-toh]

noun, plural ve·toes. Also called veto power (for defs 1, 4).

1. the power or right vested in one branch of a government to cancel or postpone the decisions, enactments, etc., of another branch, especially the right of a president, governor, or other chief executive to reject bills passed by the legislature.
2. the exercise of this right.
3. Also called veto message. a document exercising such right and setting forth the reasons for such action.
4. a nonconcurring vote by which one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council can overrule the actions or decisions of the meeting on matters other than procedural.
5. an emphatic prohibition of any sort.

verb (used with object), ve·toed, ve·to·ing.
6. to reject (a proposed bill or enactment) by exercising a veto.
7. to prohibit emphatically.

Origin:
1620–30; < Latin vetō I forbid

Related forms
ve·to·er, noun
pre·ve·to, noun, plural pre·ve·toes, verb (used with object), pre·ve·toed, pre·ve·to·ing.
re·ve·to, verb (used with object), re·ve·toed, re·ve·to·ing.
un·ve·toed, adjective

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Today’s aphorism

I must apologise because I know all writers have memories of being on the outer because it’s the children on the side of the playground who become the dangerous writers.

– Thomas Keneally

On this day

28 July 1586 – the humble and versatile potato introduced to the British Isles by Sir Thomas Harriot after it was brought to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish.

28 July 1866 – the United States recognises the metric system as a valid means of measurement.

28 July 1900 – Louis Lassing of Connecticut invents the hamburger.

28 July 1902 – birth of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Died 8 August 1959.

28 July 1914 – start of World War I.

28 July 1928 – IX Olympiad opens in Amsterdam.