Commutation vs Clemency - What's the difference?
commutation | clemency |
(obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
(obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.
* 1969 , Philip Ziegler, The Black Death , Folio Society 2006, p. 213:
(legal) The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State
* 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 23:
(linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.
(electronics) The reversal of an electric current.
The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing.
* 1601 , William Shakespeare, Hamlet :
* 2010 , Priyamvada Gopal, The Guardian , 4 May 2010:
Mildness of weather.
As nouns the difference between commutation and clemency
is that commutation is (obsolete) a passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation while clemency is the gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing.commutation
English
Noun
(en noun)- Professor Postan has argued in favour of a rapid move towards commutation in the twelfth century which slackened or even went into reverse in the course of the thirteenth.
- Monsieur the Marquis de Sade [was] now holed up in one of his châteaux while his wife worked for the commutation of a sentence passed on him recently for poisoning and buggery.
clemency
English
Noun
- For vs, and for our Tragedie, / Heere stooping to your Clemencie : / We begge your hearing Patientlie.
- A death sentence for Kasab, seen to represent Pakistan, will be widely supported in a frenzy of righteous retribution. Presidential clemency is politically improbable.
