guillotine French · revision 15604

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=eponym|attested=1790, Actes des apôtres}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡi.jɔ.tin/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''guillotine''' ''f'' (plural guillotines)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from the name of the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who in 1789 urged the use of a beheading machine to shorten the sufferings of the condemned.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989) The machine itself was perfected by the surgeon Antoine Louis and was at first also called [[louisette]] or [[louison]];^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) similar devices had been used in Italy since the 16th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Satirical papers already joked about “guillotines” in December 1789, while Guillotin's proposal was being debated.^(BHVF) The TLFi dates the word to 1790, in the royalist ''Actes des apôtres''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word became one of the emblems of the Terror, and after the Revolution remained the symbol of the death penalty in France until its abolition.^(DHLF 1992) By metonymy it named the punishment itself from 1872.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) From the shape and movement of the blade come ''fenêtre à guillotine'', a sash window (1830), and other sliding devices such as a cutting shear.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1789 – Guillotin's proposal; the name is already used in jest.^(BHVF)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1790 – ''Guillotine'' and the verb ''guillotiner'' are recorded.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1830 – ''À guillotine'' “sliding vertically”, as of a window.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ * 1872 – Used for the penalty of beheading itself.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|guillotine]], the machine for [[m|en|beheading]] condemned prisoners with a falling blade.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(by metonymy)'' Execution by beheading; the death penalty.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''Fenêtre à guillotine'': a [[m|en|sash window]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Académie 9)

+ # A [[m|en|shear]] for cutting sheet material.^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[guillotiner]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|guillotine]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}