the.com/innocent

Not guilty yet, or just hasn't been caught thinking about it.

means Free from guilt or wrongdoing — or simply unaware of how the world really works.

from From Latin innocens — in- 'not' plus nocens, 'harmful,' from the verb nocere, 'to harm or hurt' (the same root that gives us 'noxious' and 'innocuous'). So an innocent person was, quite literally, 'one who does no harm' — a meaning that slowly drifted from harmlessness in action to purity in guilt or knowledge.

legal default
presumed until proven otherwise, in theory
etymology
latin for not harming, in-plus-nocere
childhood version
ignorance mistaken for virtue
courtroom twist
verdicts say not guilty, never innocent
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