Potence (pendaison)

A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks of grain or minerals, usually positioned in markets or toll gates. The term was also used for a projecting framework from which a ship's anchor might be raised so it is no longer sitting on the seabed, riverbed or dock; "weighing [the] anchor" meant raising it using this apparatus while avoiding striking the ship's hull. In modern usage the term has come to mean almost exclusively a scaffold or gibbet used for execution by hanging. The term "gallows" was derived from a Proto-Germanic word galgô that refers to a "pole", "rod" or "tree branch". With the beginning of Christianization, Ulfilas used the term galga in his Gothic Testament to refer to the cross of Christ, until the use of the Latin term (crux = cross) prevailed. Gallows can take several forms: The simplest form (as often used in the game "Hangman") resembles an inverted "L" (or a Greek/Cyrillic "Г"), with a single upright and a horizontal beam to which the rope noose would be attached. The horizontal crossbeam is supported at both ends. The Tyburn gallows, commonly known as Tyburn Tree, was triangular in plan, with three uprights and three crossbeams, allowing up to 24 people to be executed simultaneously when all three sides were used. Gallows may be permanent, partly acting as a symbol of justice. The French word for gallows, potence, stems from the Latin word potentia, meaning "power". Many old prints of European cities show such a permanent gallows erected on a prominent hill outside the walls, or more commonly near the castle or other seat of justice. In the modern era the gallows were often installed inside a prison; freestanding on a scaffold in the yard, erected at ground level over a pit, enclosed in a small shed, built into the gallery of a prison wing (with the beam resting in brackets on opposite walls), or in a purpose-built execution suite.