gallows n : instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which condemned persons are executed by hanging [syn: gallows tree, gallows-tree, gibbet, gallous]

English

Pronunciation

• /'gæləʊz/

Etymology 1

Old English ġealga.

Noun

1. wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging

Translations

See also

• gibbet

Etymology 2

Verb

gallows

1. third-person singular of gallow

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 men and women to be executed simultaneously when all three sides were used.

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. In England, Pirates were typically executed using a temporary gallows, at low tide in the Intertidal zone, then left for the sea to wash over them during three following high tides.

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, so victims dropped down and died quickly from a broken neck rather than through strangulation, especially if extra weights were fixed to their ankles. commons Gallows

During the era of public execution in the London, England, a prominent gallows stood at Tyburn, now in the region of Connaught Square. Later executions occurred outside Newgate Gaol, now the Old Bailey.

See also

• Gibbet
• Dule Tree
• Hangman's Elm
• Moot hill
• Death Sentence

References

External links

• BBC Article about British manufacturer
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A_Researcher%27s_Guide_to_Local_History_Terminology Local History terminology

ax, beheading, block, burning, capital punishment, cross, crucifixion, death chair, death chamber, decapitation, decollation, defenestration, drop, electric chair, electrocution, execution, fusillade, gallows-tree, garrote, gas chamber, gassing, gibbet, guillotine, halter, hanging, hemlock, hemp, hempen collar, hot seat, judicial murder, lapidation, lethal chamber, maiden, necktie party, noose, poisoning, rope, scaffold, shooting, stake, stoning, strangling, strangulation, the ax, the block, the chair, the gallows, the gas chamber, the guillotine, the hot seat, the rope, tree