Wordwyrt

executioner

/ˌeksəˈkjuːʃənə/ek-suh-KYOO-shuh-nur
/ˌɛksəˈkjuʃənɚ/ek-suh-KYOO-shuh-nur

Meaningone who carries out an execution

Common meaning: the official who puts condemned people to death

‘out’ + ‘to follow, come after’ → executioner

Journey through time

  1. Latinsequor, secūtus‘to follow, come after’
  2. Frenchexecution
  3. Middle Englishexecutensource
  4. Englishexecute‘to carry through a plan’
  5. Englishformed in English from executeexecution‘carrying out a plan’
  6. Englishformed in English from executionexecutioner‘the official who puts condemned people to death’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Formed in English from execution + -er.

Dictionary: Skeat (1898), EXECUTE, p.198 · scan

Roots

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app