Hypertext Webster Gateway: "commuted"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Commute \Com*mute"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Commuted}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Commuting}.] [L. commutare, -mutatum; com- + mutare
to change. See {Mutation}.]
To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of,
as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater,
or a single thing for an aggregate; hence, to lessen; to
diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of
imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges
for fares.
The sounds water and fire, being once annexed to those
two elements, it was certainly more natural to call
beings participating of the first ``watery'', and the
last ``fiery'', than to commute the terms, and call
them by the reverse. --J. Harris
The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence
should be commuted from burning to beheading.
--Macaulay.
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