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gallows

  (găl'ōz) pronunciation
n., pl. gallows or -lows·es.
    1. A device usually consisting of two upright posts supporting a crossbeam from which a noose is suspended and used for execution by hanging; a gallows tree.
    2. A similar structure used for supporting or suspending.
  1. Execution by hanging: a crime punishable by the gallows.

[Middle English galwes, pl. of galwe, gallows, from Old English gealga, galga.]


 
 

gibbets

A number of beliefs and customs clustered around the gallows, the hangman's rope, and even the body of the executed person. The wood of the gallows itself was prized for its curative properties, as it was believed effective against the ague and toothache. The earliest references show that for the ague, a piece was worn or carried as an amulet, as noted by Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica ((1650; 6th edn. 1672), book 5, chapter 23) ‘when for amulets against agues we use the chips of gallows and places of execution’. From the 19th century on, the emphasis is on splinters of the wood being placed in the mouth to cure the toothache. Attention also focused on the rope used in the hanging. Reginald Scot (1584: book 12, chapter 14) reports ‘A charme for the headach: Tie a halter about your head, wherewith one hath beene hanged’, and a century later John Aubrey (1686/1880: 198) confirms its practice, commenting that the hangman makes a profit by selling pieces of the rope. This belief had been held in classical times, and continued to be reported in England well into the 20th century. In addition to being good for headaches, the rope was held to be generally lucky, especially by card-players. The body of the hanged person was also valuable, the touch of the corpse's hand was used to cure swellings (see dead man's hand) and the hand of glory was much prized by burglars. Mandrakes were believed to grow especially beneath the gallows ‘… arising from fat or urine that drops from the body of the dead’ (Browne, 1672: book 2 chapter 6).

See also HANGMAN'S STONE; SKIN (HUMAN)

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

  • Opie and Tatem, 1989: 172, 189
 
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

A stage for the performance of miracle plays, in which the leading actor is translated to heaven. In this country the gallows is chiefly remarkable for the number of persons who escape it.

    Whether on the gallows high
        Or where blood flows the reddest,
    The noblest place for man to die --
        Is where he died the deadest.
                                                            (Old play)


 
Word Tutor: gallows
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A platform from which people who have been sentenced to death are hanged by the neck.

pronunciation There was a gallows set up in the middle of the Old West Town.

 
Wikipedia: gallows
Historic gallows near Visby, Gotland, Sweden
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Historic gallows near Visby, Gotland, Sweden

A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging.

A gallows can take several forms. The simplest (as often used in the game "Hangman") resembles an inverted "L", with a single upright and a horizontal beam to which the rope noose would be attached. In other designs, the horizontal crossbeam is supported at both ends. The infamous Tyburn gallows was triangular in plan, with three uprights and three crossbeams, allowing up to 24 People to be executed along all three sides. The apparatus can be permanent, as a deterrent and grim symbol of the power of high justice (indeed, the French word for gallows, potence, stems from the Latin potentia, meaning "power"). Many old prints of British and European cities show such a permanent gallows erected on a prominent hill outside the walls, or more commonly near the castle or other seat of justice. In the modern era the gallows were often installed inside a prison; freestanding on a scaffold in the yard, erected at ground level over a pit, enclosed in a small shed of stone, brick or wood, built into the gallery of a prison wing (with beam in brackets on opposite walls), or in a purpose-built execution suite of rooms within the wing and close to the condemned cell. Gallows can also be temporary. In some cases, they were even moved to the location of the crime. For example, if a crime took place inside a building, the criminal may be hanged near the front door. In some cases of multiple offenders it was not uncommon to erect multiple gallows, even one noose per condemned criminal after the trial.

Hanging people from early gallows sometimes involved fitting the noose (a.k.a the tater) around the person's neck while he or she was on a ladder or in a horse-drawn cart underneath. Removing the ladder or driving the cart away left the person dangling by the neck to slowly strangle. Later, a "scaffold" with a trap-door tended to be used, meaning that victims dropped down and died quickly from a broken neck rather than through strangulation, especially if extra weights were fixed to their ankles.

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Translations: Gallows

Dansk (Danish)
n. - galge

idioms:

  • gallows bird    galgenfugl

Nederlands (Dutch)
galg

Français (French)
n. - gibet, potence

idioms:

  • gallows bird    gibier de potence

Deutsch (German)
n. - Galgen, %

idioms:

  • gallows bird    Galgenvogel

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αγχόνη, κρεμάλα

idioms:

  • gallows bird    άνθρωπος του σκοινιού και του παλουκιού

Italiano (Italian)
forca

idioms:

  • gallows bird    avanzo di galera

Português (Portuguese)
n. - forca (f), enforcamento (m), armação (f) (para ginástica)

idioms:

  • gallows bird    malfeitor (m), pessoa (f) que merece ser enforcada

Русский (Russian)
виселица, казнь через повешение

idioms:

  • gallows bird    висельник

Español (Spanish)
n. - horca, cadalso, patíbulo, ejecución por colgamiento

idioms:

  • gallows bird    carne de horca, condenado a la horca

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - galge

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
绞架, 绞刑

idioms:

  • gallows bird    应受绞刑的犯人

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. pl. - 絞架, 絞刑
n. - 絞架, 絞刑

idioms:

  • gallows bird    應受絞刑的犯人

한국어 (Korean)
n. pl. - 바자의 멜빵
n. - 교수대[모양의 것]

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 絞首台, 絞首刑

idioms:

  • gallows bird    極悪人

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مشنقه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עמוד תלייה, גרדום, תלייה‬


 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
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