telishment means the act or institution of punishing the innocent for the sake of providing deterrence. It carries an Arena rating of 1615, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, telishment ranks #1 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #16 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #17 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #497 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
telishment is pronounced /ˈtɛlɪʃmənt/.
Why “telishment” is a great word
The deliberate, institutionalized punishment of a person known to be innocent for a calculated social benefit like deterrence. Coined in 1955 by the American philosopher John Rawls as a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, 'end, purpose, the greater good') and the English word punishment. Unlike punishment, which presupposes guilt, or scapegoating, which is often a frenzy of irrational blame, telishment is a cold, administrative calculus. It is the sterile click of a lock on a pre-selected cell, the dry ink of a falsified dossier, the measured chill of a sentence passed in a soundproofed chamber—a betrayal of justice so pure it believes itself to be justice.
Etymology
Coined by John Rawls in his 1955 paper “Two Concepts of Rules”. Probably a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “result; end; loosely, the greater good”) and the English (pun)ishment. Compare telish.
noun
- The act or institution of punishing the innocent for the sake of providing deterrence.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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