Monday word: assoil

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

assoil (ə-soil′), verb
1. To absolve; to pardon
2. To atone for.

I think the term is still in use in Scots law.

Etymology: old French assoldre, from Latin absolvere, to set free.



A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage lists it as an "obsolete ecclesiastical word for the reversal of an excommunication".