gravamen
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Late Latin gravāmen (“physical inconvenience”) and Medieval Latin gravāmen (“grievance”), from Latin gravāre + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension). Gravāre is the present active infinitive of gravō (“to burden, weigh down; to oppress”), from gravis (“heavy; grave, serious; hard, troublesome”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂- (“heavy”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
The plural form gravamina is derived from Late Latin gravāmina.
Inflected forms:
form: gravamens
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: gravamina
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A grievance complained of.
pos: noun
examples: They have brought in two Papers, they ſay, in the nature of a Gravamen. I take it to be a Gravamen, and of ill conſequence for the time to come, when we have liberty to give in Reaſons to the Houſes, that they ſhould in writing give in Gravamen's to us.
Let there be a tranſpoſition of the words, mercy for truth, in theſe two gravamens, and then ſee whether the ſubject matter be not the very ſame. I muſt therefore deſire the Reader to receive ſatisfaction unto this, from that before written, which howſoever calculated for the meridian of mercy, yet may generally ſerve as an Antidote againſt all his Gravamens.
After dinner ſome viſitors came in, and among the reſt two or three lawyers, whom I had ſeen in Guſtrow, and who were like to ſpoil our mirth by introducing their jejune talk of gravamina and appeals. One of them could tell twenty, another thirty, another forty, gravamina on the ſide of the burghers of the province.
Complaints about the burdens of keeping the lord's hunting dogs are found in several lists of gravamens preceding the Peasants' War, and in the Tyrol "There were special levies [on tenant farmers] for the dogs … of the landlord."
In 1239, the bishops presented gravamina to the papal legate detailing 'prejudices of ecclesiastical liberty by the lord king and his bailiffs'.
gloss: A grievance complained of.
pos: noun
examples: In the mean while, it was reſolved at the Synod, that ſince they muſt wait for the cited Remonſtrants, they would enter upon ſome of the Gravamina, or Points of Grievance which the Churches had laid before the Provincial Synods.
Sometimes also committees were appointed to hear the complaints of clergymen and form "gravamina" upon the evidence produced. And "gravamina" of such a formal and authoritative character, if emanating from the lower house, were usually presented by the prolocutor.
gloss: The essence or ground of a complaint.
pos: noun
examples: [P]roperly, no evidence can be read here that was not read below, and if evidence, which ought to have been read there, was rejected, that ought to be the gravamen of the appeal.
A count is sometimes considered as synonymous with a declaration, and this was its original signification in the law-French; but it is now most generally considered as a part of a declaration, wherein the plaintiff sets forth a distinct cause of action; and it frequently contains several counts, in which the plaintiff assigns different gravamens, so that if he fail in the proof of any, and substantiate one only, he may still recover; […]
Falsehood, which was in ordinary cases the gravamen of the complaint, was omitted altogether in the information against him.
The gravamen of Count One was that the defendants had conspired to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. […] The gravamen of Count Two was that they had planned, prepared, initiated, waged—or conspired to plan, prepare, initiate or wage—an aggressive war.
Due to the formalistic nature of the distinction between ‘elements’ and ‘defences’ the case often use the term ‘gravamen’ to signify the core of an offence. […] However, it is not always clear what is meant by ‘gravamen’. Two alternatives present themselves. Gravamen might mean the part of the offence which makes the conduct wrongful and therefore suitable for criminal sanctions. Alternatively, it might mean the conduct which the offence is intended to control; that is, the gravamen of the offence depends upon its purpose.
As we all know, Harry’s gravamen, the nub of his incandescent fury, is how he and Meghan were sold out by the institution.
gloss: The essence or most important aspect of a piece of writing, a point of argument, etc.; the gist.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: That neither Dr. Leask, nor myself, acted on such a principle, is the whole gravamen of our opponent's furious assaults upon us.
Prescription drug suppliers are more likely to add even unverified reports that stand as aberrations in pharmacoepidemiologic studies when they associate a use of the product with an appreciable gravamen of injury.
The grit of your argument—gravamen; I haven't used that in a long time since I practiced—the gravamen of your argument is that availability is the test, the key. […] Tell me where is the gravamen of your argument?
The gravamen of this essay is that these signifiers (the jargon of SF [science fiction]) function not merely as a set of isolated signs but as descriptions of a stock set of prototype worlds which they logically and conventionally imply, and which permit writers to specify mainly what (if anything) is unique about their world vision rather than what is shared with the rest of SF.
gloss: A formal charge or complaint.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: In the ſaid conference, the ſaid lords communicated unto us further, that ſince the departure of the laſt poſt there hath declared to the reſident of Sweden, beſides the gravamina about ſome unequitableneſs and injuries committed concerning the tolls and paſſage of the Sound, that reparation and ſatisfaction muſt be made to the king and crown of Denmark in this treaty to be made with Sweden, […]
[W]hen certain intereſt of a few great perſons were complied with, and ſeveral too juſtly complained of Gravamina from the Roman Court remedied, there might be a poſſibility of cloſing again with that Church which they then only ſo far deſerted.
In an Appeal, whether from a Gravamen or the Sentence, an Inhibition is iſſued from the Superior Court to the Inferior, to ſtop Proceedings.
The court was unanimouſly of opinion, that Mr. Frend ſhould now proceed to the gravamina. And Mr. Frend did proceed to the gravamina accordingly; in the courſe of which he read to the court a paper, which, he alledged, he had been prevented by the vice-chanceller from reading in the court below, before ſentence was pronounced upon him.
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: оплакване
roman: oplakvane
lang: Bulgarian
word: жалба
roman: žalba