War, law & rule

alibi

Alibi is the Latin adverb 'elsewhere': lawyers pleaded that the accused was alibī at the time of the crime, and the plea became a noun and then, in American usage, any excuse. Courtrooms and detective novels carried it from French and English to Russia and Japan.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Latin to Middle French, French

From French to German

From French to Italian

From French to Russian

From French to Polish

From English to Japanese

From English to Modern Hebrew

200 BCELatin

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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