The Opposite of Guilty

Factual Questions
21

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
If you are supposed to do Y, it’s implied you have a duty to do Y.

Thus, failure makes you derelict of Y.
[/QUOTE]

Please note, everyone he’s not asking about dereliction, he’s asking about the opposite.

If you are supposed to do Y , and you actually do it , then you are ___________ of Y.

22

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
If you are supposed to do Y, it’s implied you have a duty to do Y.

Thus, failure makes you derelict of Y. Various online dictionaries support me on this, though I don’t expect the phrasing is that common. More likely, I expect, is the longer and somewhat redundant “you are derelict in your duty to do Y”.
[/QUOTE]

Good point, but the question was:

23

Moderator Note:

Please take (re-)discussions of the distinction between civil and criminal burdens of proof and the social policy implications thereof to another thread, which probably belongs in another forum.

Here are a some threads and staff reports that cover the issue:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mguilty.html

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mjeopardy.htm

Gfactor, General Questions Moderator

24

Ah, yes, of course. Misread that one, clearly.

If you have to do Y, and you do Y… I’d say you’re diligent.

25

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Ah, yes, of course. Misread that one, clearly.

If you have to do Y, and you do Y… I’d say you’re diligent.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t see it:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diligent

Random House gives:

  1. Constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doiong anything: a diligent student;
  2. done or pusued with perservering attention; painstaking: a diligent search of the files.

Diligent is either a conclusion about the person who does Y, generally (he did Y because he’s diligent) or a description of how the person did Y.

Diligence is a duty sometimes imposed or presumed by the law: “due diligence,” “exercise reasonable diligence,” etc. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader – A Leading Global Law Firm and perhaps in the context where the rule requires diligence, compliance with the rule could be described as diligence.

26

Gimme a break, willya, I’m trying to rebound.
If you have a duty and you fulfill that duty, perhaps you are assiduous. I can’t find a term that refers to the performance of a specific duty, though, just more adjectives for people who fulfill all their duties generally.

27

[QUOTE=HeyHomie]
No, I don’t mean “innocent.”

Is there a word that describes the following situation?

If you are not supposed to do X, and you do it anyway, you are “guilty of X.”

If you are supposed to do Y, and you do it, you are “??? of Y.”
[/QUOTE]

Does the OP mean

If you are supposed to do Y, and you don’t do it, you are "??? of Y.

in this case you might be accountable.

28

I say again, observant. As in “He’s an observant Jew,” for instance.