alibi
pronunciation
How to pronounce alibi in British English:
UK [ˈæləbaɪ]
How to pronounce alibi in American English:
US [ˈæləˌbaɪ]
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- Noun:
- (law) a defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question
- a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.
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- Verb:
- exonerate by means of an alibi
Word Origin
- alibi
- alibi: [18] In Latin, alibi means literally ‘somewhere else’. It is the locative form (that is, the form expressing place) of the pronoun alius ‘other’ (which is related to Greek allos ‘other’ and English else). When first introduced into English it was used in legal contexts as an adverb, meaning, as in Latin, ‘elsewhere’: ‘The prisoner had little to say in his defence; he endeavoured to prove himself Alibi’, John Arbuthnot, Law is a bottomless pit 1727.But by the end of the 18th century it had become a noun, ‘plea of being elsewhere at the time of a crime’. The more general sense of an ‘excuse’ developed in the 20th century. Another legal offspring of Latin alius is alias. This was a direct 16th-century borrowing of Latin aliās, a form of alius meaning ‘otherwise’.=> alias, else
- alibi (n.)
- 1743, "the plea of having been elsewhere when an action took place," from Latin alibi "elsewhere, somewhere else," locative of alius "(an)other" (see alias (adv.)). The weakened sense of "excuse" is attested since 1912, but technically any proof of innocence that doesn't involve being "elsewhere" is an excuse, not an alibi.
Example
- 1. Mods and rockers provided an alibi for a crackdown .
- 2. Europeans will discover simultaneously that the departure of george w. bush has deprived them of an alibi .
- 3. The danger is that the president 's troubles will provide unsympathetic governments with an alibi for backsliding .
- 4. Mr singh was accused of handing the pakistani army an alibi for its murderous use of militant proxies-a monstrous outcome .
- 5. It was , miliband said , symptomatic of a prime minister who seemed to glory in the prospect of a two-speed europe and regarded the euro crisis chiefly as a useful alibi for the uk 's economic slowdown .