Empaler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who impales, meaning one who pierces or transfixes with a sharp object; an individual historically known for executing by thrusting a stake through the body; or a figure associated with the act of skewering as a form of torture or punishment
2. Someone who carries out impalement by driving a pointed stake into a living being; a person linked to a notorious form of execution involving penetration by a sharp instrument; or an agent of a cruel and primitive method of inflicting death or injury
3. An executioner or torturer who inserts a pointed object through victims; one identified with a gruesome historical method of infliction involving stakes; or a perpetrator of a severe and brutal form of physical punishment involving piercing

Etymology: "Empaler" is an obsolete spelling of "impaler," a noun for someone who executes by impalement, forcing a pointed stake through the body. The word is built from "impale" plus the agent suffix "-er," so it simply means one who impales. The older spelling with "em-" reflects the same prefix that appears in "empale," the form the verb took in English before the spelling settled on "im-." The verb "impale" itself comes from Latin "impalare," formed from "in-" meaning "into" and "palus," meaning "stake." That Latin root is also the source of "pale" in the sense of a stake or fence post, which is why the word for driving something onto a stake ties so directly to the idea of a fenced boundary.

Synonyms: executioner, torturer, punisher, impaler