ravenstone

ravenstone

English

Alternative forms

• raven-stone, raven stone

Etymology

From a calque of German Rabenstein, equivalent to raven +‎ stone.

Noun

ravenstone (plural ravenstones)

1. (historical) A place of execution; gallows
   • 1841, George Noël Gordon Baron Byron, The Works of Lord Byron:

     [...] — The raven sits / On the raven-stone, And his black wing flits / O'er the milk-white bone; [...]

   • 1996, Richard J. Evans, Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987:

     Three years later, in 1811, King Friedrich of Wurttemberg ordered the dismantling of permanent gallows and ravenstones and the ending of the practice of exposing malefactors' corpses.

   • 2015, Richard Ward, A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse:

     In 1811, for instance, King Friedrich of Württemberg ordered that the permanent gallows and ravenstones be dismantled and that the exposure of dead criminal bodies should be abandoned.

2. (Britain, dialectal) A gravestone