penalty
Pluralpenalties
- 1A punishment imposed for failing to follow required rules of procedure, such as missing a deadline or skipping a mandated step.
The court imposed a penalty on the firm for missing the disclosure deadline.
Debate teams receive a penalty for exceeding their allotted speaking time.
Similarfine, sanction, punishment
Note
Procedural rules announce their punishments in advance, and the classic frame for that warning is under penalty of. Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars (1900) uses it for a curfew bell warning that being abroad after nine o'clock was unlawful, under penalty. In everyday use the penalty attaches to the lapse with for, as in a penalty for missing a deadline.
- 2A punishment for breaking the rules during a game, often requiring the offending player to leave play for a specified period of time.
The referee called a penalty for high-sticking late in the second period.
Their power play scored twice while the opposing defenseman served his penalty.
Similarinfraction, foul
Note
Ice hockey makes the penalty something a player serves. The referee calls it, and the offender sits out a set time while his team plays shorthanded and the opponents enjoy a power play. Penalties are graded as minor, major or misconduct, and the infraction follows for, as in a penalty for tripping or for high-sticking.
- 3A direct free kick at goal taken from a marked spot twelve yards out, awarded when the defending team commits a foul inside its own area; a penalty kick.
The striker buried the penalty low into the corner, sending the keeper the wrong way.
After a video review confirmed the handball, the referee awarded a penalty.
Similarspot-kick
Note
On the football field the word names the kick itself rather than a punishment: a referee awards a penalty, and a player takes, scores or misses it. It is struck from the spot twelve yards from the goal line after a defensive foul in the eighteen-yard box. Everyone but the kicker and goalkeeper stays outside the area until the ball is kicked. Contrast the hockey sanction, which the offender serves.
- 4A disadvantage or unwelcome consequence that follows naturally from an earlier action or event.
Chronic fatigue is one penalty of working two jobs for years on end.
The city is now paying the penalty for decades of deferred maintenance.
Similarprice, cost, consequence, downside, drawback
Oppositebenefit, advantage, reward
Note
Here no one imposes the penalty; it simply follows from what went before. The fixed phrase is pay the penalty, and the cause can follow of or for. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Francesca Carrara (1834) has a lord who dares not let a girl "pay the penalty of my former folly." The same idiom works with for, as in a city paying the penalty for decades of deferred maintenance.
- 5A punishment imposed by law or by a court for a crime or offense, such as a fine or a term of imprisonment.
The judge handed down the maximum penalty allowed under state law.
Lawmakers voted to increase penalties for repeat drunk-driving offenses.
Similarpunishment, sentence, sanction
Note
The courtroom sense keeps closest to the word's roots: Middle French pénalité, from pénal, from Latin poena, which Latin borrowed from Greek poinē. A penalty is fixed for an offense and falls on the offender, so the usual preposition is for, as in the penalty for his crime. Statutes prescribe penalties and judges hand them down, and they can range from a fine to hard labor.
- 6A payment forfeited when funds are withdrawn early from an account or investment, such as a certificate of deposit or a retirement plan.
Cashing in the certificate of deposit early triggered a penalty of three months' interest.
Many retirement accounts impose a ten percent penalty on withdrawals taken before retirement age.
Note
Banking's version of the word is a cost rather than a punishment for wrongdoing, because cashing in savings early breaks no law. It is usually charged as surrendered interest or as a percentage of the amount withdrawn. It falls on the withdrawal (a penalty on early withdrawals), and it is meant to compensate the institution or to discourage premature liquidation.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle French 'pénalité', from 'pénal', from Latin 'poenālis', which derives from 'poena': a borrowing of Ancient Greek 'ποινή' (poinḗ), traced back through Proto-Hellenic to Proto-Indo-European roots.