Which is the correct word for....?

[retro]

Would you help find the correct word (maybe a prefix) that shows the action in question is redundant or unnecessary because the outcome is evident or fixed. Like a trial; when a famous person, having evidently committed a crime, is on trial, but will certainly be acquitted.

Thank you!

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by retro

Would you help find the correct word (maybe a prefix) that shows the action in question is redundant or unnecessary because the outcome is evident or fixed. Like a trial; when a famous person, having evidently committed a crime, is on trial, but will certainly be acquitted.

Thank you!

You may be looking for "predetermined".

[retro]

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

You may be looking for "predetermined".

And can we call a predetermined trial a window dressing trial?

[RonBee]

I would call it a show trial. (In the former Soviet Union the outcomes of trials were predetermined. Those trials were show trials.)

~R

[curmudgeon]

A whitewash, a foregone conclusion, a travesty, a fix, a set-up. A kangaroo court.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by retro

And can we call a predetermined trial a window dressing trial?

I wouldn't use "predetermined before "trial"; it is the outcome that is predetermined. One could say the trial was window dressing, but not usually a window dressing trial.

[retro]

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

I wouldn't use "predetermined before "trial"; it is the outcome that is predetermined. One could say the trial was window dressing, but not usually a window dressing trial.

Should we say "the trial that was predetermined.........." instead?

Originally Posted by RonBee

(In the former Soviet Union the outcomes of trials were predetermined.

~R

So were in Hungary and, I think, in every other former (?) Iron Curtain country.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by retro

Would you help find the correct word (maybe a prefix) that shows the action in question is redundant or unnecessary because the outcome is evident or fixed. Like a trial; when a famous person, having evidently committed a crime, is on trial, but will certainly be acquitted.

Thank you!

If you specifically want a prefix, it would be 'pseudo-'. There isn't a collocation (however weak) between pseudo- and trial, but that would be the one to use.

Originally Posted by retro

Should we say "the trial that was predetermined.........." instead?
...

It'd be much better to use one of the synonyms suggested by curmudgeon. Or you could use the term 'rigged' instead of 'predetermined'.

b

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by retro

Should we say "the trial that was predetermined.........." instead?


So were in Hungary and, I think, in every other former (?) Iron Curtain country.

Again, it is not the trial; it is the outcome, the verdict, the result.