gravamen

/ɡɹəˈveɪmɛn/

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin gravāmen (“physical inconvenience”) and Medieval Latin gravāmen (“grievance”), from Latin gravāre + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension). Gravāre is the present active infinitive of gravō (“to burden, weigh down; to oppress”), from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious; hard, troublesome”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- (“heavy”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). The plural form gravamina is derived from Late Latin gravāmina.

Why this word is great

GRAVAMEN — [Noun] The essence or primary grounds of a complaint or grievance. From Late Latin gravāmen ("physical inconvenience, burden"), derived from Latin gravāre ("to burden, weigh down"), from gravis ("heavy, serious"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- ("heavy"). Unlike "grievance" (a diffuse cloud of discontent) or "lien" (a cold claim on collateral), gravamen is the singular weight at the heart of the matter. It is the unpaid invoice slipped beneath a door, the unspoken accusation in a lover’s silence, or the single cracked step in a staircase that makes the whole structure groan—the irreducible burden that, once named, cannot be unshouldered.

noun

A grievance complained of.“They have brought in two Papers, they ſay, in the nature of a Gravamen. I take it to be a Gravamen, and of ill conſequence for the time to come, when we have liberty to give in Reaſons to the Houſes, that they ſhould in writing give in Gravamen's to us.”
A grievance complained of.; A document sent by the Lower House of Convocation to the Upper House to inform the latter of certain grievances in the church.“In the mean while, it was reſolved at the Synod, that ſince they muſt wait for the cited Remonſtrants, they would enter upon ſome of the Gravamina, or Points of Grievance which the Churches had laid before the Provincial Synods.”
The essence or ground of a complaint.“[P]roperly, no evidence can be read here that was not read below, and if evidence, which ought to have been read there, was rejected, that ought to be the gravamen of the appeal.”
The essence or most important aspect of a piece of writing, a point of argument, etc.; the gist.“That neither Dr. Leask, nor myself, acted on such a principle, is the whole gravamen of our opponent's furious assaults upon us.”
A formal charge or complaint.“In the ſaid conference, the ſaid lords communicated unto us further, that ſince the departure of the laſt poſt there hath declared to the reſident of Sweden, beſides the gravamina about ſome unequitableneſs and injuries committed concerning the tolls and paſſage of the Sound, that reparation and ſatisfaction muſt be made to the king and crown of Denmark in this treaty to be made with Sweden, […]”