Mulct

Verb.

1. To deprive (someone) of something, as by fraud, extortion; swindle

2. To obtain (money or the like) by fraud or extortion

3. To punish (a person) by fine, especially for misdemeanor

Noun

4. A fine, especially for a misdemeanor

What an odd, fascinating word!

According to the dictionary, mulct derives from mul(c)ta, a Latin word meaning penalty, especially pertaining to loss of property.

Why is it on Hopper’s radar this evening?

Because I stumbled across it during my current read, a recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. Immediately flashing lights went off inside my head (no, this was not an epileptic episode), and an imaginary klaxon wailed far away, something reminiscent of air raid sirens across the British countryside three-quarter of a century ago. And that was it! That was the link! Three months earlier I met this odd word for the first time – while reading Crusade in Europe, General Eisenhower’s memoirs of the Second World War.

So my most recent acquaintance with the word exemplified itself as definition #3, as done by Napoleon to certain rare miscreants in his Army of Italy. The earlier occurrence was definition #1, tallied in a long and evil list of Nazi crimes by a grim and gritty chain-smoking Western-reading pre-presidential Ike.

Mulct.