lapidate

[prettygoodword]

lapidate - v., to stone.


As in to throw stones at, to kill by stoning. I keep wanting it to mean to finish or cover with stone. In use since c. 1620, from Latin lapidāre, to stone.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yikes, that's much too polished a word to mean something as brutal as that.

Any uses in context you could give?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Maybe in similar circumstances as "defenestrate"?

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Heh. We even had a debate today as to whether you would want to lapidate or defenistrate first.

---L.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

As a victim, I'd rather start with the defenestration, I think. As a perpetrator, lapidation seems to make more sense.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

One dictionary offered examples of two senses, killing by stoning and just throwing stones at: "People wanted to stone the woman who had a child out of wedlock" and "Pilgrims lapidate a stone pillar in commemoration of Abraham's temptation."

---L.