Executioner

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌɛksəˈkjuʃənɚ/

Definitions

1. A person tasked with administering capital punishment to individuals sentenced to die
2. An individual whose role involves carrying out the death penalty on those convicted of serious crimes
3. Someone assigned to perform capital punishment on those legally condemned to death

Etymology: The core of "executioner" is a simple chain: "execution" plus the agent suffix "-er," which in English turns a verb or action into the person who performs it. "Execution" itself came into English through Old French from the Latin "exsecūtiō," built from "exsequī," "to follow out to the end." The Latin verb combined "ex-," "out," with "sequī," "to follow," so the original sense was of carrying something through to completion, and only later narrowed to carrying out a sentence of death. The suffix has a longer path. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European ancestor and came into Old English as "-ere," which was used for doers of actions from the earliest English. Middle English added its own "-er" form, so "executioner" is a late English formation, built by stacking a native agent ending onto a Latinate action noun.

Synonyms: hangman, killer, slayer, decapitator