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A.Word.A.Day--attainder

attainder (uh-TAYN-duhr) noun

Loss of property and civil rights of a person outlawed or sentenced to death.

[Middle English, from Old French ataindre, to accuse.]

"Friends and fellow-citizens! I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. ... For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land." Susan B. Anthony, U.S. Suffragist, Are women persons? Speaking in response to a verdict of guilty of the crime of voting while being a woman, Jun 17, 1873.

This week's theme: words from speeches.

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