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The meaning and origin of the expression: A fate worse than death

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A fate worse than death

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Any misfortune that would make life unliveable, especially rape or loss of virginity. The phrase was formerly a euphemism for rape.


This phrase originally attested to the belief that a dishonoured woman was better off dead. It is still used, but ironically of late. The earlier view was expressed in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1781:


