Guillotines

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device with a heavy blade that falls vertically to behead someone, historically used in executions
2. A metaphor for any ruthless or swift form of punishment or elimination
3. An instrument symbolizing justice or political reform, often associated with the French Revolution

Etymology: Guillotines is simply the plural of guillotine, so the story belongs to the singular. The machine is named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), a French physician who proposed a beheading device as a more humane and uniform method of capital punishment. He did not invent the blade itself; the idea of a falling blade had older precedents, and the name attached to the machine rather than to its inventor's design. The name reached English directly from French, where "guillotine" was the form that stuck to the device. From the same root, French formed the verb "guillotiner", meaning to execute with the machine, and English adopted that sense too, so the word can name both the apparatus and the act of using it.

Synonyms: execution devices, decapitators