lustration
n.— «Newspapers have coined the term “wild lustration” to describe the storm of new charges. The term, derived from the Latin for “purification,” was coined in the early 1990s to describe the vetting of public figures for ties with the old regime. But now it’s back. And what makes this lustration so wild is the indiscriminate way in which so many of the names are coming to light, often through leaks to the press or on the Internet, with no supporting evidence.» —“The Reckoning” by Andrew Purvis in Warsaw, Poland Time Europe Apr. 4, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When a teenager went a week without talking as part of a school project, he noticed a surprising side effect: Instead of rehearsing a response to what other people were saying to him, he was focused on listening — and feeling smarter as a result...
We tend to take the index of a book for granted, but centuries ago, these helpful lists were viewed with suspicion. Some even worried that indexes would harm reading comprehension! A witty new book tells the story. Plus, the Latin term bona fides...