guillotine

guillotine
/gil"euh teen', gee"euh-/; esp. for v. /gil'euh teen", gee'euh-/, n., v., guillotined, guillotining.
n.
1. a device for beheading a person by means of a heavy blade that is dropped between two posts serving as guides: widely used during the French Revolution.
2. an instrument for surgically removing the tonsils.
3. any of various machines in which a vertical blade between two parallel uprights descends to cut or trim metal, stacks of paper, etc.
v.t.
4. to behead by the guillotine.
5. to cut with or as if with a guillotine.
[1785-95; named after J. I. Guillotin (1738-1814), French physician who urged its use]

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Instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation.

A minimal wooden structure, it supported a heavy blade that, when released, slid down in vertical guides to sever the victim's head. It was introduced in France in 1792 in the French Revolution, though similar devices had been used in Scotland, England, and other European countries, often for executing criminals of noble birth. The name derived from a French physician and member of the National Assembly, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who was instrumental in passing a law requiring all sentences of death to be carried out "by means of a machine," so that execution by decapitation would no longer be confined to nobles and executions would be as painless as possible. The last execution by guillotine in France took place in 1977.

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▪ beheading instrument
      instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation, introduced into France in 1792 during the Revolution. It consists of two upright posts surmounted by a crossbeam and grooved so as to guide an oblique-edged knife, the back of which is heavily weighted to make it fall forcefully upon (and slice through) the neck of a prone victim.

      Previous to the French Revolution, similar devices were in use in Scotland, England, and various other European countries—often for the execution of criminals of noble birth.

      A French physician, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who was born at Saintes in 1738 and elected to the National Assembly in 1789, was instrumental in having a law passed requiring all sentences of death to be carried out by “means of a machine.” This was done so that the privilege of execution by decapitation would no longer be confined to the nobles and the process of execution would be as painless as possible. After the machine had been used in several satisfactory experiments on dead bodies in the hospital of Bicêtre, it was erected on the Place de Grève for the execution of a highwayman on April 25, 1792. At first the machine was called Louisette, or Louison, but soon became known as la guillotine. Later the French underworld dubbed it “the widow.” Use of the guillotine continued in France well into the 20th century, diminishing during the 1960s and '70s, with only eight executions occurring between 1965 and the last one in 1977. In September 1981 France outlawed capital punishment and abandoned the use of the guillotine. Compare beheading.

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Universalium. 2010.

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