| 释义 |
‖ ex post facto|ɛks pəʊst ˈfæktəʊ|
[med.L. phrase, lit. ‘from what is done afterwards’ (ex from, out of, postfacto, abl. of postfactum, neut. pa. pple. of *postfacĕre, f. post after + facĕre to do). The separation of postfacto in current spelling is erroneous.]
a. From an after act or deed; = ‘after the fact’.
1632Reply to Remonstrance of Netherlands E. India Co. in Justification of Proceedings at Amboyna (E. India Co.) 11 For first for the notoriousnesse of the pretended conspiracie; although now ex post facto, they cry it out for notorious. 1649Bp. Hall Cases Consc. i. x. 89 To buy those goods wch you know..to be stoln..for what doe you else herein, but ex-post-facto partake with that theefe, who stole them? 1679J. Goodman Penit. Pard. i. iii. 77 Whatsoever sin..is not repented of when it is come to our knowledge, is by that means become a voluntary transgression, increasing its guilt ex post facto. 1835Tomlins's Law-dict. (ed. 4) s.v., An act done..may be made good by matter ex post facto, that was not so at first. 1966Listener 10 Nov. 705/2 A piano suite by Cornelius Cardew eccentrically titled (one supposes ex postfacto) Three Winter Potatoes.
b. quasi-adj. Done after another thing, and operating retrospectively, esp. in ex post facto law.
1789Bentham Princ. Legisl. xv. §3 Cases in which punishment must be inefficacious..Such are the cases of an ex-post facto law. 1812R. Cumberland in T. Mitchell Aristoph. II. 148 May not I Take up the cause of youth..Remitting and consigning to oblivion All ex post facto beating? 1823Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 486 By an ex post facto law, those who had taken the first oath against the papal authority, were reputed to have taken..a second and much more comprehensive oath, which was afterwards enacted. 1845McCulloch Taxation ii. vi. §2 They might have objected to the tax had it been ex post facto. |