The etymological origin of the term iniquity is found in Latin. Specifically, it emanates from the word “iniquitas, iniquitatis”, which can be translated as “unjust quality” and which is the result of the sum of several lexical components:
-The prefix “in-”, which means “without” or “no”.
-The word “aequus”, which is equivalent to “fair” and “equitable”, as well as “balanced”.
-The suffix “-dad”, which is synonymous with “quality”.
The term refers to a great injustice or something malicious .
For example: “The local company accused the government of having incurred iniquity by awarding all the tenders to a company close to the president” , “Using children in a political campaign is an iniquity” , “Retirees suffer the iniquity of a system that does not give them what they deserve."
Among the terms that function as synonyms for iniquity, we can highlight some such as illegality, evil, infamy, injustice, immorality or lawlessness. On the contrary, among its antonyms we find legality, goodness, morality or justice, for example.
It is common for iniquity to be confused with inequity . Inequity (with E after the N ) refers to the absence of equity . Because inequality is often unjust, the two concepts (inequity and iniquity) can sometimes be used synonymously. In any case, the Urgent Spanish Foundation – Fundéu BBVA warns that they are not always equivalent, since iniquity basically refers to a perverse, harmful or bad act .
The idea of iniquity usually appears in the field of religion . In Christian groups, iniquity is understood as a tendency that a person shows when they repeatedly commit sins .
Iniquity, in this context, is considered a pattern of behavior. It is a kind of vicious circle where sin, punishment and guilt are mixed and from which it can only be broken with the help of God .
This Christian belief maintains that man , until he is freed by God , suffers the guilt and punishment of his sinful acts. When inequality is broken by divine intervention, the human being is “liberated.”
It is important to establish, therefore, in this sense that iniquity is irremediably linked to the fact that the human being is considered to have evil in his essence and that this circumstance leads to it appearing at any time.
There are those who confuse what is sin and iniquity, but we must be clear that they are different things. Specifically, sin is a specific error that a human being commits, which makes him go against his word and what God exposes and which, therefore, later causes his conscience to sting.
However, iniquity is when the aforementioned human being continually gets used to sinning and that not only makes him see it as something normal but also makes him not feel bad about it.