the.com/plea bargain

means An agreement where a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge (or to some charges in exchange for others being dropped) in return for a more lenient sentence than they'd risk at trial.

from Straightforward compound of 'plea' — from Old French plait/plaid, meaning a lawsuit, discussion, or agreement, itself from Latin placitum, 'that which is pleasing or decided' — and 'bargain,' from Old French bargaigner, to haggle over a deal. The phrase itself is a 20th-century American legal coinage, emerging as courts leaned on negotiated guilty pleas to clear crowded dockets; the practice grew quietly for decades before courts and legislatures formally recognized and regulated it.