gallows
pronunciation
How to pronounce gallows in British English:
UK [ˈgæləʊz]
How to pronounce gallows in American English:
US [ˈgæloʊz]
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- Noun:
- instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which condemned persons are executed by hanging
Word Origin
- gallows
- gallows: [13] Gallows was probably borrowed from Old Norse gálgi (the related Old English galga does not seem to have survived into the Middle English period). Both go back to a prehistoric Germanic *galgon ‘pole’, whose descendants, which also include Old High German galgo and Gothic galga, were often used for the ‘cross on which Christ was crucified’. The plurality of modern English gallows presumably comes from the fact that technically a gallows consists of two upright poles with a cross-piece in between (as opposed to a gibbet, which has a single upright).
- gallows (n.)
- c. 1300, plural of Middle English galwe "gallows" (mid-13c.), from Old Norse galgi "gallows," or from Old English galga (Mercian), gealga (West Saxon) "gallows;" all from Proto-Germanic *galgon "pole" (cognates: Old Frisian galga, Old Saxon galgo, Middle High German galge "gallows, cross," German Galgen "gallows," Gothic galga "cross"), from PIE *ghalgh- "branch, rod" (cognates: Lithuanian zalga "pole, perch," Armenian dzalk "pole"). In Old English, also used of the cross of the crucifixion. Plural because made of two poles. Gallows-tree is Old English galg-treow. Gallows humor (1881) translates German Galgenhumor.
Example
- 1. He heard from his cell the carpenters building the gallows .
- 2. Many must have had no idea why they were sent to the gallows .
- 3. Beyond , were the gallows , but lloyd 's eyes were fixed on the mare .
- 4. Little boys have their heads chopped off ( and stuck on again ) , dead men converse as they swing from the gallows , bisected bodies drop down the chimney .
- 5. The only known photograph of remus shows him standing on the gallows .