In 1511, leaders in Mecca believed coffee stimulated radical thinking and outlawed the drink. In 1524, the leaders overturned that order, and people could drink coffee again.
EXPOSTFACTO
Ex"post` fac"to, or Ex"post`fac"to. Etym: [L., from what is done afterwards.] (Law)
Definition: From or by an after act, or thing done afterward; in consequence of a subsequent act; retrospective. Ex post facto law, a law which operates by after enactment. The phrase is popularly applied to any law, civil or criminal, which is enacted with a retrospective effect, and with intention to produce that effect; but in its true application, as employed in American law, it relates only to crimes, and signifies a law which retroacts, by way of criminal punishment, upon that which was not a crime before its passage, or which raises the grade of an offense, or renders an act punishable in a more severe manner that it was when committed. Ex post facto laws are held to be contrary to the fundamental principles of a free government, and the States are prohibited from passing such laws by the Constitution of the United States. Burrill. Kent.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Word of the Day
22 November 2024
SHEET
(noun) (nautical) a line (rope or chain) that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind
Coffee Trivia
