the.com/redress

The law's apology for your suffering, paid in money because feelings don't cash checks.

means To set right a wrong, especially by compensating or correcting the harm done — the remedy that follows the injury.

from From Old French 'redrecier' meaning to straighten again or set upright, built from 're-' (again) plus 'drecier' (to direct or arrange), itself from Latin 'directus' (straight, direct). The core image is physical before it was legal: something bent or knocked crooked, and now put back in line. English borrowed it in the 1300s, and over time the crookedness became metaphorical — a wrong, an injustice — but the instinct to straighten it out never left the word.

origin
from old french, literally to set upright again
legal use
remedy ordered by a court, not a sorry
old meaning
once just meant fixing your clothes
key nuance
redress fixes the wrong, not the wrongdoer
the.com · every word