guillotine

guillotine

See also: Guillotine and guillotiné

English

WOTD – 14 July 2021

Pronunciation

The official guillotine (sense 1) of Luxembourg, last used in 1821.

An engraving of Maximilien Robespierre being executed by guillotine (sense 1) on 28 July 1794 for his role in the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

A guillotine (sense 2.1.1) used to trim the edges of stacks of paper.

A double tonsil guillotine (sense 2.1.2) or tonsilotome, formerly used to excise both tonsils in the throat at the same time.[n 1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪlətiːn/, /ˌɡɪləˈtiːn/, /ˌɡiːjəˈtiːn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪləˌtin/, /ˈɡi(j)əˌtin/
• Hyphenation: guil‧lo‧tine

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment.[1]

Noun

guillotine (plural guillotines)

1. (historical, also figuratively) A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “The Procession”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 1026761782, book IV (States-General), pages 143–144:

     For two-and-twenty years he [Joseph-Ignace Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive [Julius] Cæsar’s.

2. (by extension)
   1. A device or machine with a cutting blade.
      1. A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.
      2. (surgery) An instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts.

         Hyponyms: (for tonsils) tonsillotome, tonsilotome, (for the uvula) uvulotome

   2. (law, politics, informal)
      1. (Britain) A parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.
         • 2019 October 22, Stephen Kerr, Member of Parliament for Stirling, “Second Reading of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill”, in House of Commons Debates (House of Commons)‎, volume 666, archived from the original on 24 October 2019, column 860:

           The right hon. Gentleman is making a great stooshie about time in relation to this Bill, but was it not the case that, when the SNP [Scottish National Party] Scottish Government introduced their continuity Bill in the Scottish Parliament, they operated a ruthless guillotine to prevent proper scrutiny of it? That is the case; they ran a guillotine on that Bill, and there was a very limited amount of time allowed for debate and scrutiny, yet he complains about that happening here.

      2. (US) A legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.

Derived terms

• Hume's guillotine

Translations

machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation

Albanian: gijotinë (sq) f Arabic: مِقْصَلَة‎ f (miqṣala) Egyptian Arabic: جيلوتين‎ m (gilyotin) Armenian: գիլյոտին (hy) (gilyotin), կառափնատ (hy) (kaṙapʿnat) Azerbaijani: gilyotin Belarusian: гільяці́на f (hilʹjacína), гільяты́на f (hilʹjatýna) Bulgarian: гилоти́на (bg) f (gilotína) Catalan: guillotina (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 斷頭台, 断头台 (dyun6 tau4 toi4) Mandarin: 斷頭台／断头台 (zh) (duàntóutái) Czech: gilotina (cs) f Danish: guillotine c Dutch: guillotine (nl) f, valbijl (nl) f Esperanto: gilotino Estonian: giljotiin Finnish: giljotiini (fi) French: guillotine (fr) f Georgian: გილიოტინა (gilioṭina) German: Guillotine (de) f, Fallbeil (de) n Greek: λαιμητόμος (el) f (laimitómos), γκιλοτίνα (el) f (gkilotína), καρμανιόλα (el) f (karmanióla) Hebrew: גִּילְיוֹטִינָה‎ f (gilyotína) Hindi: गिलोटिन (giloṭin) Hungarian: nyaktiló, guillotine (hu) Icelandic: fallöxi Ido: gilotino (io) Interlingua: guillotina Italian: ghigliottina (it) f Japanese: ギロチン (ja) (girochin), 断頭台 (ja) (だんとうだい, dantōdai) Kazakh: гильотина (gilotina) Khmer: ម៉ាស៊ីនកាត់ក (maasiinkatkɑɑ) Korean: 단두대(斷頭臺) (ko) (dandudae), 기요틴 (ko) (giyotin) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: meşneqe, giyotîn Kyrgyz: гильотина (gilʹotina) Ladino: giyotina f Latvian: giljotīna f Lithuanian: giljotina f Macedonian: гилотина f (gilotina) Malay: gilotin Norman: dgilliotinne f Norwegian: Bokmål: giljotin m Nynorsk: giljotin m Persian: گیوتین‎ (fa) (giyotin) Polish: gilotyna (pl) f Portuguese: guilhotina (pt) f Romanian: ghilotină (ro) f Russian: гильоти́на (ru) f (gilʹotína) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: гѝљотина f Roman: gìljotina (sh) f Slovak: gilotína (sk) f Slovene: giljotina (sl) f Spanish: guillotina (es) f Swedish: giljotin (sv) c Tagalog: gilyotina Tajik: гилйотина (gilyotina) Thai: กิโยตีน (th) (gì-yoo-dtiin) Turkish: giyotin (tr) Ukrainian: гільйоти́на f (hilʹjotýna) Uzbek: gilʼotina Venetian: ghiƚotina (vec) f Vietnamese: máy chém (vi), đoạn đầu đài (斷頭臺) Volapük: gilyoten Yiddish: גיליאָטין‎ f (gilyotin)

device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges

Catalan: guillotina (ca) Finnish: paperileikkuri, giljotiini (fi) French: massicot (fr) m German: Papierschneider m Greek: μαχαίρι (el) n (machaíri) Hungarian: síkvágó Norwegian: Bokmål: skjæremaskin m Portuguese: guilhotina (pt) f Russian: ре́зальная маши́на f (rézalʹnaja mašína), ре́зательная маши́на f (rézatelʹnaja mašína) Spanish: guillotina (es) f Turkish: giyotin (tr)

instrument for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts

parliamentary procedure for fixing the date when the committee stage of a bill must end, in order to cut short discussion about the bill

legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken — see cloture

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French guillotiner (“to execute with a guillotine, to guillotine”), from guillotine (see etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).[2]

Verb

guillotine (third-person singular simple present guillotines, present participle guillotining, simple past and past participle guillotined) (transitive)

1. To use a guillotine (on someone or something).
   1. (also figuratively) To execute (someone) with a guillotine.

      Many counterrevolutionaries were guillotined during the French Revolution.

   2. To cut or trim (a body part, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine.
2. (law, politics, informal)
   1. (Britain) To end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
   2. (US) To end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture.

Derived terms

• guillotined (adjective)
• guillotinement
• guillotiner
• guillotining (noun)
• unguillotined

Translations

to execute (someone) with a guillotine

Catalan: guillotinar (ca) Finnish: teloittaa giljotiinilla French: guillotiner (fr) German: guillotinieren (de) Greek: αποκεφαλίζω (el) (apokefalízo) Italian: ghigliottinare (it) Polish: gilotynować impf, zgilotynować pf Romanian: ghilotina (ro) Russian: казни́ть на гильоти́не impf or pf (kaznítʹ na gilʹotíne), гильотини́ровать (ru) impf or pf (gilʹotinírovatʹ) Spanish: guillotinar (es) Swedish: giljotinera (sv) Volapük: gilyotenön

to cut or trim (body parts, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine

to end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure

to end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture

Notes

1. From the Wellcome Collection in London, England, United Kingdom.

References

1. “guillotine, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “guillotine, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
2. “guillotine, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “guillotine, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• guillotine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French guillotine. Named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. First attested in the early 1790s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɡi.joːˈti.nə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: guil‧lo‧ti‧ne
• Rhymes: -inə

Noun

guillotine f (plural guillotines, diminutive guillotinetje n)

1. guillotine

   Synonym: valbijl

Derived terms

• guillotineren

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French

Etymology

From Guillotin. Named after French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who proposed its use for capital punishment. The surname is a diminutive of Guillot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡi.jɔ.tin/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

guillotine f (plural guillotines)

1. guillotine (machine)

Derived terms

• guillotiner (“behead with a guillotine”)
• fenêtre à guillotine (“box sash window”)

Descendants

• → Dutch: guillotine
• → English: guillotine
• → Finnish: giljotiini
• → Indonesian: guillotine
• → Italian: ghigliottina
• → Ottoman Turkish: كییوتین‎ (giyotin)
  • Turkish: giyotin
• → Portuguese: guilhotina

Verb

guillotine

1. inflection of guillotiner:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “guillotine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French guillotine, Guillot. After Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed its use for capital punishment.

Noun

guillotine (first-person possessive guillotineku, second-person possessive guillotinemu, third-person possessive guillotinenya)

1. guillotine (machine).

Further reading

• “guillotine” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

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Spanish

Verb

guillotine

1. inflection of guillotinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative