On Tue, 23 Sep 2008, Rob Morley wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:19:36 +0100
> Tom Anderson  wrote:
>
>> It's 'commute' in the sense of 'his sentence was commuted to
>> life in prison',
>
> But surely that is used in the sense of one sentence being exchanged for 
> another - it doesn't actually mean that it was reduced?

I'm sure it comes from the idea of swapping one for another, but i've only 
ever heard it used to describe a reduction in the severity of the sentence 
- from death to imprisonment, or imprisonment to a suspended sentence. I 
think it has the sense of swapping one thing for another, lesser, thing.

tom

-- 
Know who said that? Fucking Terrorvision, that's who. -- D