Word of the Day: impute

Impute (verb) im-PYOOT

Definition

1 : to lay the responsibility or blame for often falsely or unjustly

2 : to credit to a person or a cause

Examples

“Now, one comment in reaction to my essay said that by talking about the city’s problems and not its promise, I was in the business of tearing down Syracuse. At LeMoyne, I was taught that the most dangerous thing to do in argument was to impute motives to your opponent.” — Carl Schramm, Forbes.com, 4 Mar. 2013

“The CAS panel concluded that Sharapova’s case ‘was not about an athlete who cheated.’ Instead, the panel found, ‘It was only about the degree of fault that can be imputed to a player for her failure to make sure that the substance contained in a product she had been legally taking over a long period … remained in compliance.” — Tom Perrotta, The Wall Street Journal, 4 Oct. 2016

Did You Know?

Impute is a somewhat formal word that is used to suggest that someone or something has done or is guilty of something. It is similar in meaning to such words as ascribe and attribute, though it is more likely to suggest an association with something that brings discredit. When we impute something, we typically impute it to someone or something. You may also encounter the related noun imputation, which appears in such contexts as “I deny all your imputations of blame.” Another sense of impute means “to calculate as a value or cost (as for taxation),” as in “impute a benefit from the use of the car.”

My Take

Do you know how hard it is to find images related to today’s word, impute without insulting someone? It means to lay blame falsely or to credit a person unjustly.

I just won’t do it on this blog. My errors are my own, and I will not blame someone else for my short givings. I did question the difference between Impute and Impune. I thought they were related, but I wanted to make sure. I’m happy to say; they are, but not exactly. Impune is an adjective meaning ‘unpunished.’ I take it that the individual blaming someone else (impute) for their error, may remain unpunished (impune) for their actions if they successfully transfer the blame.

That said, I stayed away from using images with real people, or at least where you can recognize them. That left me with banners of the word and cartoons, and of course, this one where the Wicked Witch blames Dorothy for killing her sister. I downloaded many of them but I probably won’t use them all. I hope you like them, as I wouldn’t want to impute my actions on someone else.

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Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.