[Loch-Ruadh] Word of the Day, April 20-21

[Cait O'Hara]

hidegild

A price or ransome paid to save one’s skin form [a] beating…. From the Saxon hide, the skin, and gild, the price by which [a person] redeemed his skin, that is, redeemed it from being whipp’d…. Vel hikgildum [Latin for a legal fine] ‘let him pay for his skin,’ by which payment he is to be excused from whipping.
-- Thomas Blount’s Law Dictionary and Glossary, 1717

Birthday of England’s Prince Henry (1491-1547), who, eighteen years later, would be crowned Henry VIII.  When young members of the royal family, such as “Great Harry,” were deemed to be in need of corporal punishment, servants were often substituted because royalty was considered sacred.  Princes were required to watch as the “whipping-boy” received the rod, the reasoning being that they would experience the servant’s discomfort vicariously and thereby absorb the lesson.




---
Never meddle in the affairs of dragons;
For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
-- Acacia



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