This week’s theme
Toponyms from England

This week’s words
Piltdowner
Devonshire
kersey
Halifax
Aldermaston

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(HAL-uh-faks)

MEANING:

noun: Hell.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Halifax, a town in West Yorkshire, England. Earliest documented use: 1630.

NOTES:

Halifax, a town in England, today may be known for toffee, but at one time it had a reputation for harsh punishment. Even petty crime meant being sent to the Halifax gibbet (an early form of guillotine). The poet John Taylor wrote a poem “Beggar’s Litany” (1622) that includes the line: “From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us!”

USAGE:

“‘In fact, you can go to Halifax for all I care.’ He spit on the floor and stomped out of the door.”
Lana Mowdy; Tara’s Forgotten Son; PublishAmerica; 2007.

See more usage examples of Halifax in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: