gallows的词源

英文词源

gallows: gallows: [13] Gallows was probably borrowed from Old Norse gálgi (the related Old English galga does not seem to have survived into the Middle English period). Both go back to a prehistoric Germanic *galgon ‘pole’, whose descendants, which also include Old High German galgo and Gothic galga, were often used for the ‘cross on which Christ was crucified’. The plurality of modern English gallows presumably comes from the fact that technically a gallows consists of two upright poles with a cross-piece in between (as opposed to a gibbet, which has a single upright).
gallows (n.): c. 1300, plural of Middle English galwe "gallows" (mid-13c.), from Old Norse galgi "gallows," or from Old English galga (Mercian), gealga (West Saxon) "gallows;" all from Proto-Germanic *galgon "pole" (cognates: Old Frisian galga, Old Saxon galgo, Middle High German galge "gallows, cross," German Galgen "gallows," Gothic galga "cross"), from PIE *ghalgh- "branch, rod" (cognates: Lithuanian zalga "pole, perch," Armenian dzalk "pole"). In Old English, also used of the cross of the crucifixion. Plural because made of two poles. Gallows-tree is Old English galg-treow. Gallows humor (1881) translates German Galgenhumor.

来自PIE*ghalgh, 杆，棍。用来指绞刑架。

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