Mea culpa, Latin for “through my fault,” comes from the prayer in the Catholic mass in which, back when Latin was still the language of the mass, one would confess to having sinned “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” (“through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”). [From Merriam-Webster’s Vocabulary Builder]

　　解释

　　When we say “Mea culpa” today, it means “I apologize” or “It was my fault.” But mea culpa is also common as a noun. So, for instance, a book may be a long mea culpa for the author’s past treatment of women, or an oil company may issue a mea culpa after a tanker runs aground.” [From Merriam-Webster’s Vocabulary Builder]

　　不同来源例句

　　The principal said his mea culpa at the school board meeting, but not all the parents were satisfied.

　　校长在董事会上承认了错误，但是并不是所有家长都满意。

　　Merriam-Webster’s Vocabulary Builder

　　“Most of all, we need to make a ‘mea culpa,’ and turn the page, because there’s a game to win now.”

　　我们最重要的是认错，而后掀开新的一页，因为我们要赢得下面的比赛。

　　Washington Times

　　His mea culpa was manly, but it could not change the result.

　　他的道歉很爷们儿，但是不能改变结果。

　　New York Times(Mar 24, 2015)

　　He explained in his mea culpa the consequences of his decision not to build a statistical model.

　　他在他的道歉中解释了不建立统计模型这个决定的后果。

　　Washington Post(Oct 31, 2016)

　　She added a mea culpa that suggests that she knows the depth of the trust problem that has dogged her throughout this campaign.

　　从她追加的致歉中可以看出她清楚在整个竞选中困扰她的信任问题的深度。

　　Washington Post(Jun 28, 2016)

　　Yet many leaders, including the key foreign ministers meeting Saturday, have also conceded that to some extent, the E.U. needs to offer a mea culpa.

　　然而，很多领导人，包括周六会晤的重要的外长，也承认在一定程度上，欧盟需要道歉。

　　Washington Post(Jun 26, 2016)

　　Not only did she have to deliver the biggest mea culpa in NASA’s history, every second of it would be remembered forever.

　　她不仅得做出美国宇航局历史上最大的道歉，它也会被永久的记住。

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