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ravenstone. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ravenstone, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ravenstone in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ravenstone you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From a calque of German Rabenstein, equivalent to raven + stone.
Noun
ravenstone (plural ravenstones)
- (historical) A place of execution; gallows
1841, George Noël Gordon Baron Byron, The Works of Lord Byron:[...] — The raven sits / On the raven-stone, And his black wing flits / O'er the milk-white bone; [...]
1996, Richard J. Evans, Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987:Three years later, in 1811, King Friedrich of Wurttemberg ordered the dismantling of permanent gallows and ravenstones and the ending of the practice of exposing malefactors' corpses.
2015, Richard Ward, A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse:In 1811, for instance, King Friedrich of Württemberg ordered that the permanent gallows and ravenstones be dismantled and that the exposure of dead criminal bodies should be abandoned.
- (UK, dialectal) A gravestone