Fawkes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A proper name for the English Catholic conspirator who was caught guarding gunpowder beneath the Houses of Parliament in 1605
2. The surname of the seventeenth-century English plotter who tried to blow up the Parliament buildings in London in 1605
3. Refers to the English Catholic arrested beside explosives under Parliament in 1605 during a failed plot against King James I

Etymology: Fawkes is a surname and a variant spelling of Faulks, the same name written with a different ending. Surnames like this were often recorded inconsistently, so one family could appear under either form. The spelling is best known from Guy Fawkes, the Catholic conspirator caught beneath the Houses of Parliament in 1605 during the Gunpowder Plot. His name is also behind the English word "guy," meaning a scarecrow-like effigy, which people burned on bonfire night in his memory.