From Greek 'asylon' (inviolable refuge), from 'a-' (not) + 'sylon' (right of seizure) — a place where no one could lawfully be taken.
Definition
Protection granted by a state to someone who has left their home country as a political refugee; historically, a place of refuge or shelter, especially a sanctuary where fugitives were immune from arrest.
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Greek1430swell-attested
From Latin 'asylum' (sanctuary, place of refuge), from Greek 'asylon' (refuge, sanctuary), the neuter of 'asylos' (inviolable, safe from violence), composed of 'a-' (not, without) + 'sylon' (right of seizure, plunder). The original Greek conceptwas a sacred space — typically a temple, altar, or grove consecrated to a god — where a person could not be lawfully seized, arrested, or harmed, regardless of what crime they were accused of. The 'a-' prefix is from PIE *n̥- (the zero-grade of the negative *ne), the same
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According to Roman legend, Romulus establishedRome's first asylum — a sacred grove between the two summits of the Capitoline Hill — where fugitives, runaway slaves, and criminals from neighbouring peoples could find refuge. This, the Romans believed, was how their city grew from a handful of founders into a great power: by offering asylum to anyone willing to come.
to the new city of Rome. The word entered English in the fifteenth century with this sense of sacred inviolable refuge. The meaning 'institution for the care of the insane' developed in the eighteenth century, when 'asylums' were established as places of shelter (theoretically) safe from the cruelties of the outside world. The modern legal sense — political asylum, the right of a state to shelter foreign refugees — revives the ancient Greek meaning most faithfully: protection from seizure by a pursuing power. Related terms include 'inviolable' (Latin parallel construction) and 'sanctuary' (from Latin 'sanctuārium,' sacred place). Key roots: ἀ- (a-) (Ancient Greek: "not, without"), σῦλον (sylon) (Ancient Greek: "right of seizure, plunder").