| Front | gravamen \gruh-VAY-mun\ |
|---|---|
| Back | noun The essence or the most serious part of an accusation. ["Gravamen" is not a word you hear every day, but it does show up occasionally in modern-day publications. It comes from the Latin verb "gravare," meaning "to burden," and ultimately from the Latin adjective "gravis," meaning "heavy." Fittingly, "gravamen" refers to the part of a grievance or complaint that gives it weight or substance. In legal contexts, "gravamen" is used, synonymously with "gist," to refer to the grounds on which a legal action is sustainable. "Gravis" has given English several other weighty words, including "gravity," "grieve," and the adjective "grave," meaning "important" or "serious."] "The gravamen of James's charge against Flaubert is that he created no characters of sufficiently deep consciousness." - Joseph Epstein; Writer's Block: A French Misconnection; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Mar 31, 2007. |
Tags: priorityhigh
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