Gealga

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An Old English term for a wooden frame from which condemned criminals were hanged ; a cross on which people were crucified
2. A timber structure built for executing people by hanging ; the upright and crossbeam on which a person was nailed to die
3. The Old English name for a gibbet used in hangings ; the wooden cross of crucifixion, a symbol of Christian martyrdom

Etymology: Old English "gealga" meant a gallows, but it also meant a cross, and Old English writers used it for the cross of Christ's crucifixion. The sense of execution gallows came to dominate, while the religious sense faded from ordinary use. The word belongs to a Germanic family that includes German "Galgen," Dutch "galg," and Old Norse "gálgi," all pointing to a shared Proto-Germanic form, *galgô, whose ultimate origin is uncertain. English "gallows" is a Middle English descendant of the Old English word, which changed its shape as the language developed. The final -s makes it look like a plural, yet it is used as a singular, which is why a single gallows is called "a gallows." The same oddity appears in words like "pants" and "scissors," though their histories are separate.