different between gallows vs hangman

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??æl??z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??ælo?z/
• (US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /??æl?s/

Etymology 1

From Middle English galwes, galewes, galowe, galwe, from Old English ?ealga, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *??alg?-, *??alg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.

Noun

gallows (plural gallows or gallowses)

1. Wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging. [from 1300s]
2. (colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.
3. (printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.
4. (colloquial, obsolete) Suspenders; braces.
5. Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.
   • 1971, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (screenplay, third draft)

     Lit by the moonlight through the window, he can see a FIGURE in the hospital bed alone in the room, and under a transparent oxygen tent. […] Tubes hang from a steel gallows beside the bed, and run to his nose and mouth.

6. The main frame of a beam engine.

Synonyms

• (wooden framework used for hanging): gallows tree, gallow tree, hanging tree, gibbet

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

gallows

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of gallow

English

Etymology

hang +? -man

Pronunciation

Noun

hangman (countable and uncountable, plural hangmen)

1. (countable) An executioner responsible for hanging criminals.
   • 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act II Scene II

     One cried, "God bless us!" and "Amen" the other,

     As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.

2. Someone responsible for hanging pictures and other artworks in a gallery, museum etc.
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 213:

     I also asked some Royal Academicians to view it, viz. Northcote, Cosway, &c. who approved of it much: it is well composed, and beautifully coloured; but the hangmen at the Exhibition have not hung it in a conspicuous situation; it is placed in an ante-room, and pretty high […] .

3. (uncountable, games) A guessing game where one has to guess the word an opponent is thinking of by guessing one letter at a time, and involving the gradual drawing of a stick figure hanging from the gallows.

Derived terms

• cheat the hangman

Translations

See also

• hangman's noose
• hanging