prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (words are sexy)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2013-12-16 07:11 am

patibulary

So it turns out that several of the next words on my list all begin with P -- so why not shuffle them a little and make the next five a theme week?


patibulary (puh-TEYE-byoo-la-ree) - adj., (rare) of or pertaining to a gallows or execution.


Even when it was used, it was typically in a jocular way -- a nice $20 word for dealing with the gibbet. In Latin, a patibulum was a forked yoke used to constrain criminals, and later was also applied to the cross-bar of a crucifix. From there, I gather, the meaning extended to the cross-bar of a gallows.

---L.

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