v. [ad. L. condōnāre to present, give up, remit, forgive, pardon, f. con- altogether + dōnāre to give: see DONATION, PARDON.]
[Early dictionary entries appar. merely reproduce the Lat. vb.:
1623. Cockeram, Condone, to giue.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Condone or Condonate, to give willingly, to forgive, or pardon.
1731. Bailey, vol. II., Condone, to pardon, to forgive. Not in Johnson, Ash, Todd, Richardson, Webster, 1828, or Craig, 1847.]
1. trans. To forgive or overlook (an offense), so as to treat it as non-existent; esp. to forgive tacitly by not allowing the offense to make any difference in one’s relations with the offender:
a. in technical use, in reference to a violation of the marriage vow.
[In its Latin form, a term of the Canon Law and of the casuists: cf. Sanchez, De Sancti Matrimonii Sacramento Disputt. (Antwerp, 1607), citing Barbosa, ‘Reconciliationem conjugis esse duplicem … expressam, tacitam … tacita autem est quando facto ipso animus condonandi indicatur.’ Hence it came into the Divorce Act of 1857, and thus into ordinary use. The sb. CONDONATION had been in earlier use, having been orig. taken from the casuists as a theological term.]
1857. Act 20 & 21 Vict., c. 85 § 31 (The Divorce Act). And shall not find that the petitioner has … condoned the adultery complained of.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy-bk. Prop. Law, xii. 75. The petition will be dismissed if the petitioner has been accessory or conniving … or has condoned (or forgiven) the adultery.
b. in ordinary use.
1857. R. Congreve, Ess. (1874), 84. I conceive we did wrong in seizing India. No subsequent experience warrants our considering that wrong as condoned.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. 273. Charles in his consent would condone before the world the affront of the divorce of Catherine.
1859. De Quincey, Ld. Carlisle on Pope, Wks. XIII. 30, note. We ‘condone’ his cowardice, to use language of Doctors’ Commons.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, i. 9. The Pope condoned the irregularity.
2. Of actions, facts: To cause the condonation of.
1871. Daily News, 21 Sept. That fact alone would condone many shortcomings.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., iii. § 1. 150. The willingness of the people to relinquish irksome duty … has almost condoned the assumptions and devices of priestcraft.
