Today's Word "onus"
a disagreeable necessity
on
Published in Vocabulary
onus \OH-nuhs\ (noun) - 1 : A burden; an obligation; a disagreeable necessity. 2 : a: A stigma. b: Blame. 3 : The burden of proof.
"The engineer was not as much fun to be with as he once was, and she thought that it might be the terrible onus of repairing the engines that weighed upon him." -- Michael Flynn, 'The Wreck of the River of Stars
Onus is adopted from Latin onus, "load, burden." The derivative Latin adjective onerosus yields English onerous, "burdensome, oppressive." The derivative Latin verb onerare has the compound form exonerare, "to free from (ex-) an onus or burden," which yields English exonerate, "to relieve, in a moral sense, as of a charge, obligation, or load of blame resting on one."
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