Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Guillotine |
GuillotineNoun1. Closure imposed on the debate of specific sections of a bill. 2. Instrument of execution that consists of a weighted blade between two vertical poles; used for beheading people. Verb1. Kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; "The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "guillotine" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1794. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | GUILLOTINE, n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason. In his great work on Divergent Lines of Racial Evolution, the learned Professor Brayfugle argues from the prevalence of this gesture -- the shrug -- among Frenchmen, that they are descended from turtles and it is simply a survival of the habit of retracing the head inside the shell. It is with reluctance that I differ with so eminent an authority, but in my judgment (as more elaborately set forth and enforced in my work entitled Hereditary Emotions -- lib. II, c. XI) the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important a theory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown. I have not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror inspired by the guillotine during the period of that instrument's activity. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Industry | A special form of clipper used in veneer production, designed to cut a pack of veneers. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A machine equipped with a long heavy removable knife for trimming paper with a downward slicing action. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Literature | Guillotine (3 syl.). So named from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a French physician, who proposed its adoption to prevent unnecessary pain (1738-1814). It was facetiously called "Mdlle. Guillotin" or "Guillotin's daughter." It was introduced April 25th, 1792, and is still used in France. A previous instrument invented by Dr. Antoine Louis was called a Louisette (3 syl.). The Maiden (q.v., introduced into Scotland (1566) by the Regent Morton, when the laird of Pennicuick was to be beheaded, was a similar instrument. Discontinued in 1681. "It was but this very day that the daughter of M. de Guillotin was recognised by her father in the National Assembly and it should properly be called `Mademoiselle Guillotin.'" - Dumas: The Countess de Charny, chap. xvii. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Medicine | A surgical instrument employed in tonsillectomy. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | A machine for breaking iron with a falling weight. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The guillotine is a machine used for decapitation.
It consists of a tall upright frame (approx 4m high) from which is suspended a heavy triangular blade (approx 40kg). The blade is hauled to the top of the frame on a stout cord and held in place while the victim has his/her head placed in a restraining bar. The cord is released and the heavy blade falls a distance of 2.3m, severing the neck. (Heights and weights are the French standards.)
Guillotine like devices existed and were used for executions on the British islands before the French Revolution but the French developed the machine further and became the first nation to use it as a standard execution method. On April 25, 1792 highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier became the first person executed by guillotine. It takes its name from Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French doctor, on whose suggestion it was introduced. The basis for his recommendation is believed to have been his perception that it was a humane form of execution, contrasting with methods such as hanging (often resulting in a long agony) or beheading with an ax (the executioner could miss the neck). There is some debate over this as some authorities believe that the victim can remain conscious for up to 30 seconds after decapitation.
The guillotine was the newest method of execution at the time, considered more humane than the previous methods. Before the guillotine, an executioner used a sword or axe. Sometimes it took repeated blows to completely sever the head. The family of the victim or the victim itself would sometimes pay the executioner to ensure that the blade was sharp in order for a quick and relatively painless death.
The electric chair and lethal injection have since superseded the guillotine in jurisdictions that practice capital punishment. The guillotine was the only legal execution method in France until the death penalty's abolishment in 1981, apart from certain crimes against the security of the state. The last execution took place on September 10, 1977.
In France, executions by guillotine were also regarded as a public entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. The last public execution was of Eugene Weidmann, who was convicted for six murders. It took place on September 10, 1939 at 4:32 in the afternoon outside the prison Saint Pierre rue Georges Clémenceau 5 at Versailles, which is now the Palais de Justice. The scandalous behaviour of some of the onlookers on this occasion caused the authorities to decide that executions in the future were to take place in the prison courtyard.
From Napoleonic times, the guillotine was used in many places in Germany. The Nazis employed it extensively: twenty guillotines were in use in Germany and (from 1938) in Austria. As many as 20,000 people may have been executed; for an example see White Rose.
The guillotine was not, however, a French invention—although Guillotin is often named as its inventor, it had a history as a farm implement used for killing poultry in Germany, England, and Persia before being introduced as a method of capital punishment.
There is some conflict as to how the word guillotine should be pronounced. The word entered English from French in 1793, and since then authorities on pronunciation have debated, not whether guillotine should be pronounced GIL-uh-TEEN or GEE-yuh-TEEN, but whether it should be pronounced with a stress on the third syllable (GIL-uh-TEEN) or on the first.
Since, for several decades, stressing of the word's first syllable has held sway over stressing of the third, one question remains: is it the long-established GIL-uh-TEEN or the recently popular GEE-yuh-TEEN which should be said? Pronunciation pronunciator Charles Harrington Elster, in his Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, calls GEE-yuh-TEEN "a pseudo-French affectation". He continues: "Careful speakers are expected to help hold the line on this one—on pain of beheading!"
Of course, it isn't crucial to heed Elster's highly biased, prescriptive advice.
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)Pronunciation Note
External website
Guillotine (metalwork)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Guillotine."
Synonym: GuillotineSynonym: closure by compartment (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Punishment | Execute; bring to the block, bring to the gallows; behead, decapitate, guillotine; decollate; hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter; shoot; decimate; burn; break on the wheel, crucify; empale, impale; flay; lynch; electrocute; gas, send to the gas chamber. |
Scourge | Scaffold; block, ax, guillotine; stake; cross; gallows, gibbet, tree, drop, noose, rope, halter, bowstring; death chair, electric chair; gas chamber; lethal injection; firing squad; mecate. |
Sharpness | Wedge; knife edge, cutting edge; blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor; scalpel; bistoury, lancet; plowshare, coulter, colter; hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill; billhook, cleaver, cutter; scythe, sickle; scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter; sword; (arms); bodkin; (perforator); belduque, bowie knife, paring knife; bushwhacker; drawing knife, drawing shave; microtome; chisel, screwdriver blade; flint blade; guillotine. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Guillotine |
| English words defined with "guillotine": Guillotined, Guillotining ♦ tumbrel, tumbril. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "guillotine": BACK-STRIP-MACHINE OPERATOR ♦ design basis accident, Dying Sayings ♦ Furies of the Guillotine ♦ Halifax Law ♦ Inventors Punished ♦ LEATHER CUTTER, LUGGAGE MAKER ♦ Mary Anne ♦ STRIPPER-CUTTER, MACHINE ♦ trimmed sheet, trimmed size ♦ untrimmed sheet. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Guillotine" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (guillotine), German (guillotine), Hungarian (guillotine). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | He thought that trip to the guillotine factory was just for fun, but it was the perfect place to shoot him (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) How very sad it was the night she fled the scene, she didn't want the name of Madame Guillotine. She had this silly fear that if she went to bed, she'd suddenly wake up one day without her head (Demoiselles de Rochefort, Les; writing credit: Jacques Demy) We use the guillotine in this country (Charade; writing credit: Peter Stone; Marc Behm) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Two on a Guillotine (1965) Madame Guillotine (1931) Guillotine (1924) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Theater & Movies | |||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Political guillotine. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | As to the bishop, the sight of the guillotine was a shock to him, from which it was long before he recovered |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Guillotine" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.55% of the time. "Guillotine" is used about 204 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.55% | 199 | 21,651 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.47% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.98% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 204 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "guillotine": guillotine a bill ♦ guillotine break. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "guillotine": guillotine-less. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "guillotine"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | gijotinë (blade), tranxhë për prerje letre. (various references) | |
Arabic | مقصلة (maiden), حدد وقتا, أعدم (be executed, despatch, dispatch, execute, hang out, put to death, shoot, string up, swing), آلة لإستئصال اللوزتين. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | гилотина, гилотинирам. (various references) | |
Chinese | 断头台. (various references) | |
Czech | gilotina, stít gilotinou, ořezávat (Whittle), řezat (bite, chop, cut, saw), řezaèka na papír. (various references) | |
Danish | guillotine, tonsillotom (tonsillotome), stansning (blanking(USA), piercing(USA), punching, stamping), skaeremaskine (cutter, slicer, slicing machine), skæremaskine (cutter, cutting machine, husker shredder, plough, sheet cutter, slicer), lineær skæremaskine. (various references) | |
Dutch | guillotine, valbijl, tonsillotoom (tonsillotome), snoeimachine (plough), snijmachine (slicer, slitter, slitting machine), snijder (cutting punch, punch), papiersnijmachine, fineerschaar (clipper), dwarsdoorsnijapparaat (cross-cutter), automatische snijmachine (trimmer). (various references) | |
Farsi | ماشین گردن زنی , کاغذبر, گیوتین , باگیوتین اعدام کردن . (various references) | |
Finnish | giljotiini, valukeleikkuri, mestata (behead), katkoja (cross-cutter), katkaisukone (cross-cutter). (various references) | |
French | massicot, guillotine. (various references) | |
German | schneidemaschine (slicer), guillotine (tonsillotome). (various references) | |
Greek | κόφτρα (crocodile shears, plough), γκιλοτίνα (cross-cutter), μηχανή κοπής (slicer, slicing machine), περικοπτική μηχανή (plough), ευθύγραμμη κοπτική μηχανή, λαιμητόμοσ, λαιμητομός, λαιμοτομής, αμυγδαλοτόμος (tonsillotome), αποκεφαλίζω (behead, decapitate), Ψαλίδι μήκους (cross-cutter). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מערפת, לערוף ראש (behead, decapitate), 'ילוטי ". (various references) | |
Hungarian | nyaktiló, guillotine, mandulakacs, klotűr. (various references) | |
Indonesian | alat pemenggal kepala. (various references) | |
Italian | ghigliottina. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 断 台 , 截断機 (cutter, cutting machine), ギルド社会主義 (cookie, cooky, coup, coup d'etat, coupe, coupon, gingham, guild socialism), 切断機 (cutter, cutting machine). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | せつ "き (cutter, cutting machine), ギロチン , "とう い. (various references) | |
Korean | 단두대. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uillotinegay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | guilhotina (paper-cutter). (various references) | |
Romanian | ghilotinã (paper cutter), maşina de tãiat prin forfecare. (various references) | |
Russian | гильотина. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | giljotina. (various references) | |
Spanish | guillotina (paper cutter, plough, plow). (various references) | |
Swedish | gjutavklippare, giljotinera, giljotin, tvärskärmaskin (cross-cutter), tidsbegränsning (time limit), skärmaskin (cutter, slicer), fallbila, diskussionsspärr. (various references) | |
Thai | เครื่องตั"กระ"าษ, เครื่องประหารชีวิต. (various references) | |
Turkish | giyotin ile idam etmek, giyotin (paper cutter), zaman kısıtlaması. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | гільйотинувати, гільйотина. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "guillotine": guillotined, guillotines. (additional references) | |
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"Guillotine" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: gillotine, guillain, guillatine, Guillemin, guillitine, guillot, guilloting, guilltine, guilltotine, guilotine, gullotine, Gullotti. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "guillotine" (pronounced gi"lutē'n or gē"yutē'n) |
| 4 | -u t ē' n | carotene, nicotine. |
| 3 | -t ē' n | argentine, elephantine, Holstein, libertine, mangosteen, protein, quarantine. |
| 4 | -u t ē' n | carotene, nicotine. |
| 3 | -t ē' n | argentine, elephantine, Holstein, libertine, mangosteen, protein, quarantine. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-g-i-i-l-l-n-o-t-u" | |
-2 letters: glutelin, luteolin. | |
-3 letters: eluting, elution, gillnet, inutile, lentigo, lignite, lilting, louting, outline, telling, tilling, toiling, tolling. | |
-4 letters: eloign, englut, entoil, gentil, gillie, glutei, gluten, gullet, gunite, ignite, illite, iolite, legion, lentil, ligule, lintel, lintol, lounge, lutein, luting, nielli, niello, oiling, outing, outlie, tieing, tiglon, tiling, tingle, toeing, toling, tongue, tuille. | |
-5 letters: elint, eloin, genii. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-g-i-i-l-l-n-o-t-u" | |
+1 letter: guillotined, guillotines. | |
+3 letters: multiregional. | |
+5 letters: bloodguiltiness, oligonucleotide. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
