inviolate
adjective; formal

- Not harmed, damaged or disturbed

- Free from violation, injury or desecration

- Not infringed; kept intact or unbroken

Cambridge Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

English acquired inviolate in the early 15th century. The earliest evidence recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary dates from around 1412–20.

It comes from the Latin inviolatus, meaning “unharmed” or “uninjured”. The word combines the negative prefix in- —“not”—with violatus, the past participle of violare, “to injure, dishonour or violate”.

That Latin verb is also the ancestor of violate, violation and violence. The family resemblance is therefore meaningful: something inviolate has escaped the force, interference or disrespect suggested by those words.

Originally, inviolate could describe something physically untouched or uninjured. It later became particularly useful for less tangible things that must remain intact: rights, promises, principles, privacy and territorial borders. Its close relative inviolable usually means “not to be violated”; inviolate more often describes the protected condition itself.

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WHEN VALUES ARE PRICELESS

Would you sell your vote for €100? Probably not. Raise the offer to €10,000 and the question may become offensive rather than tempting.

Psychologists call certain deeply protected beliefs sacred values. They needn’t be religious. Human life, loyalty, freedom, national territory or professional confidentiality can all be treated as beyond negotiation. Putting a price on them feels wrong because the calculation itself crosses a boundary.

In experiments on “taboo trade-offs”, psychologist Philip Tetlock and his colleagues found that people reacted with moral outrage when sacred values were exchanged for ordinary benefits such as money. More surprisingly, merely considering such exchanges could produce a desire for symbolic cleansing. The mind appeared to treat moral contamination rather like physical dirt.

This helps explain why a larger offer can sometimes make agreement less likely. Money signals that the other side has misunderstood the nature of the objection. Someone protecting a forest as sacred ground isn’t necessarily bargaining over hectares; someone refusing to betray a confidence isn’t merely waiting for a better price.

Of course, supposedly absolute values sometimes bend when circumstances become severe. Yet we prefer not to describe that process as bargaining. We speak instead of exceptions, necessities or tragic choices.

What remains inviolate is precisely what we refuse to place on the scales.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

intact, inviolable (not to be violated), INVIOLATE, protected, sacrosanct, secure, unbroken, undamaged, undefiled, unharmed, unhurt, unimpaired, unscathed, unsullied, untouched, unviolated, whole


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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today. Say something like:


“Promises of confidentiality must remain INVIOLATE.”

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“We didn’t have a formal agenda, so we adjusted it ON THE FLY.”

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Paul Smith