Literary notes about Commute (AI summary)
The term "commute" plays a versatile role in literature, employed both in legal and everyday contexts. In judicial language, it often refers to the act of mitigating punishment by substituting one penalty for a less severe one, such as converting a death sentence to life imprisonment or penal servitude ([1],[2],[3]). At the same time, the word appears in descriptions of daily life, where characters discuss the act of traveling—whether by train or other modes—to work or school, highlighting the rhythms and challenges of modern life ([4],[5]). Its usage even extends to historical and social narratives, where it conveys the idea of exchanging or transforming duties, services, or vows, reflecting broader themes of change and continuity ([6],[7]).
- The Emperor had heard his prayer and said: "I grant her her life, I will commute the punishment to imprisonment for life, for twenty years.
— from The Chief Justice: A Novel by Karl Emil Franzos - I will, however, commute your sentence to one of three months, with the option of a fine of twenty-five per cent.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler - The king, in his inexhaustible clemency, has deigned to commute his penalty to that of penal servitude for life.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - His first live-report did not bode well; the FDR Drive was tied up very early; might be a rough commute.
— from Terminal Compromise by Winn Schwartau - I'll commute to work here every morning—it's quicker than commuting to the city in my own time."
— from Butterfly 9 by Donald Keith - But ordinarily one should not commute one's own vows, since for most persons it is not an easy matter to decide what is a better or an equal good.
— from Moral Theology A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities by Charles J. (Charles Jerome) Callan - James in turn showed his resentment by passing over the attempts made to commute for a fixed sum the oppressive rights of Purveyance and Wardship.
— from History of the English People, Volume V Puritan England, 1603-1660 by John Richard Green
