tua culpa

1. uncommonYour (singular) fault, due to your error; you are to blame.

   When we do not hear from you and Annette for a long period, we get uneasy and wonder what can the matter be? In our busy life, we do not stop to question is it mea culpa or tua culpa, but just start as I am doing now.

   1927 November 3, Richard Dewey, “Letter to Dr. C[olonel] B[ell] Burr”, in Selected Papers, Chicago, Ill., published 1943, →OCLC, page 20

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   It seems a long time since Mr. [Paul] Henneberg has vouchsafed the public a flute solo: he was in rare form and it was a grand treat. The masterly manner in which the virtuoso deals with the most intricate execution and the expression that he develops is always a signal for an outburst of genuine applause. “I do not like the flute,” remarked a lady, “the physical effort is too palpable.” “Tua culpa, madam, don’t look at the performer.”

   1894 February 19, “Saturday’s Entertainments. Musical Matinee at the Manitoba [Hotel]—[Charles] Frohmann’s^([sic]) Company at the Bijou.”, in Molyneux St. John, editor, Manitoba Morning Free Press, volume XX, number 190, Winnipeg, Man.: Manitoba Free Press Co., →OCLC, page 5, column 3

   We did not attend the Bazaar and Supper, Saturday, dared not. Understood we stood-in, not well, but for a thrashing. But still it was a success and netted a nice sum for the Aid.—Why? Well, we took the item via phone and got our wires crossed. Mea culpa, tua culpa, or what means the same.

   1914 December 17, “To the Public”, in F[orester] D. Joslyn, editor, Logan County News, volume XI, number 8, Winona, Kan., →OCLC, page [3], column 4

   In my desperation casting about, I caught at the last word of the last line to connect it with you trying to be even feebly departmental with English at our Amherst College. You barely succeed. You envy those in equivalent positions at Mount Holyoke and Harvard. But desist. By so much more than you do of them do they fall short of ants that it is as if you were in the same row boat with them trying to overtake a liner that got away from the wharf while, tua culpa, you were being given a farewell dinner party at the Commodore [Hotel] by your friends.

   1935 January 12, Robert Frost, “[To George F[risbie] Whicher. ALS. ACL.]”, in Mark Richardson, Donald Sheehy, Robert Bernard Hass, Henry Atmore, editors, The Letters of Robert Frost, volume 3 (1929–1936), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 2021, →ISBN, section 6 (FERA and Loathing in Key West: July 1934–March 1935), pages 481–482

   Shattered another idol! / Busted another dream! / Culpa, tua culpa: / Such is my dismal theme. // Thou, C. C., ever unerring, / Keen as a radio beam— / Thou to let verses slip past thee, / With rhymes like “queen” [sic] with “dream!”

   1939 January 7, Ray Dieden, “Alas, Clay Feet!”, in Chicago Daily Tribune […], volume XCVIII, number 6, Chicago, Ill., →ISSN, page 8, column 3

   The experience of many would indicate that the accountants, in general, are well ahead of technologists in their practical thinking, and the “tua culpa” attitude indicates more a juvenile than adult attitude in any areas of disagreement.

   1958 September 22, F. E. Winter, “[Letters From Readers] Scientists As ‘Public Advocates’”, in The Gazette, Montreal, Que., published 26 September 1958, column 6

plural tua culpas

1. uncommonAn instance of blaming someone else.

   The president’s “tua culpa” (you’re at fault) only admitted to being caught, and begrudgingly at that.

   1998 August 26, David Hall, “Forgiving [Bill] Clinton doesn’t mean we have to forget”, in The Sentinel, volume 117, number 255, Carlisle, Pa., →OCLC, page B4, column 3

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   Here, in the desperate plight of so many of our brethren, lies a heavy charge against us. Here there is more than enough reason for our humble ‘mea culpa’ but also for a ‘tua culpa’ addressed to those outside the Church who, as socialists, claim to have, or ought to have, a sense of social responsibility.

   1952 September 19, Hugo Rahner, quotee, “‘Without God, Freedom Is Only A Word’”, in The Catholic Times, volume 1, number 51, Columbus, Oh.: The Catholic Times, Inc., →OCLC, page 2, column 6

   And what distinguishes [Stefan] Kanfer's recounting of the last blacklist is its note of intelligent compassion. Kanfer is more interested in the people than politics, in delineating human beings than in location party lines. And unlike so many accounts of the blacklist that I have read, his is not a quest for self-justification, a tua culpa or a J'Accuse.

   1973 September 23, Josh Greenfeld, “Blacklisters, Blacklistees Down Memory Lane”, in Los Angeles Times (Book Review section), Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, columns 3–4

   It is, perhaps, the nature of the great American beast that in the midst of the recent “energy crisis” at least two-thirds of all the media time and space devoted to the “crisis” dealt with flinging “tua culpa’s”—trying to pass the blame.

   1974, Richard M. Laska, “‘The Preceeding^([sic]) Crisis was Brought to You By…’”, in Anton B. Schmalz, editor, Energy: Today’s Choices, Tomorrow’s Opportunities: Essential Dimensions in Thinking for Energy Policy, Washington, D.C.: World Future Society, →OCLC, page 216

   There is, of course, a conspiracy to deny his rightness, and Nice Guys Finish Last is a tua culpa as full of lofty complaints as Henry Kissinger before a Congressional committee. Both Henry and Leo are always aghast at the inability of the opposition to see the truth, which is so patiently being told them.

   1975 June 8, Heywood Hale Broun, “Leo [Durocher]’s impassioned account of Leo”, in Chicago Tribune (Book World section), Chicago, Ill., →ISSN, page 3, column 2

   I conclude that the evidence fails to support the general charge of a hostile learning environment in American law schools and the call for a new regime in legal education. If I am right, perhaps the smugness, tua culpas, breast beating, and self-abasement can stop.

   2001, Dan Subotnik, “The Cult of Hostile Gender Climate: A Male Voice Preaches Diversity to the Choir”, in The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Legal Studies, volume 8, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Law School, →ISSN, page 40