In order to fully understand the meaning of the term alibi, we are going to proceed, first, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is a word that derives from Latin. Specifically, it is the result of the sum of the following components:
-The prefix “with”, which can be translated as “together”.
-The verb “artare”, which is synonymous with “narrow”.
-The suffix “-ada”, which is used to indicate “that the action has been received”.
The alibi is a justification or an argument that allows a person to be separated from a certain fact. The concept is often used with reference to what an individual alludes to to show that he is not the author of a certain crime.
For example: “The suspect’s alibi is that, at the time of the murder, he was a hundred kilometers from the place”, “The new evidence found by the investigators demolished the alibi of the official accused of corruption”, “If you do not have an alibi, you could end up in prison ”.
In the field of criminal law, the alibi is understood as the demonstration of the absence in a place where a crime took place. When a subject has an alibi, he manages to show that he was not physically present at the site in question and, therefore, did not have a direct and active participation. The alibi, therefore, is a defense test.
Suppose a man is accused of murdering his wife. The crime took place on March 4 at 10 in the morning and a witness claims to have seen an individual in the area with physical characteristics similar to those of the accused. The man, however, has an alibi: he shows, through a plane ticket, a stamp in his passport and a hotel reservation that, that day and at that time, he was in another country, thousands of kilometers away. This alibi is his main defense: he could not have been the material author of the murder since he was no longer in the place where his wife was killed.
In the field of literature, the term that concerns us has been used on numerous occasions to title different works. A good example of this is the novel “The Alibi”, written by Malcom Rose. A book that begins with the discovery of the body of Stuart Burrage in his own home. The police launch an investigation and quickly find the culprit.
However, the son of the murdered is clear that the individual they have caught is not the criminal. She knows that the one responsible for the death is her stepmother and she will try to do everything possible to prove it. However, it will not be easy because she has an alibi.
In the cinematographic field we also come across several films that use the term at hand in their titles. A good example is the film “The Alibi”, released in 2006 and directed by Kurt Mattila and Matt Checkowski.
Steve Coogan, Rebeca Romjin or Selma Blair are the actors in this feature film that presents a man who runs an alibis for unfaithful husbands.
