This week’s theme
Words that aren’t what they appear to be

This week’s words
windlass
monopolylogue
lustration

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(luhs-TRAY-shuhn)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An act of purification by means of rituals.
2. The purging of those associated with crimes committed under an earlier regime.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin lustrare (to make bright). Earliest documented use: 1614.

NOTES:

If you’ve ever tried to cleanse your browser history or remove the lingering influence of a previous group project gone wrong, congratulations -- you’ve dabbled in lustration.

Originally used for religious or ceremonial purification, lustration was what you did when your crops failed, your city got a plague, or someone angered Jupiter by parking a chariot in a fire lane. Think of it as spring cleaning for your soul.

In modern political use, lustration took on a sharper edge. After the fall of totalitarian regimes (e.g., post-Communist Eastern Europe), it came to mean the act of cleansing the government of people tied to past abuses.

There’s something poetic in the root lustrare, “to make bright”. You’re not just wiping the slate clean, you’re polishing it until it gleams. Although some politicians subjected to lustration might prefer a dimmer switch.

USAGE:

“No, he made his opinion evident by driving you out of his house at once, and indeed conducting a lustration, they say, after your departure.”
Lucian (Translation: H.W. Fowler and F.G Fowler); The Works of Lucian of Samosata; Oxford University Press; 1905.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: