Not receiving punishment or consequences for doing something wrong; escaping justice or penalty.
From the prefix 'un-' meaning 'not,' combined with 'punished,' which comes from Latin 'punire' meaning 'to cause pain or suffering.' The Latin root literally meant inflicting pain as payment for a crime.
The word 'punish' literally means 'to cause pain' in Latin—so when someone goes 'unpunished,' they escape the pain that was supposed to balance out their wrongdoing. That's why justice systems talk about proportional punishment!
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