| 释义 |
pilliwinks Obs. exc. Hist.|ˈpɪlɪwɪŋks|
Forms: 4 pyrwykes, 5 pyrewinkes; Sc. 6–7 pilli(e)winkes, -is, 8 -winks, -wincks, 6 pinniwinkis, 8 pinniewinks; 8–9 pilni(e)winks. (Also 9 (erroneously) pilliwinkies, pennywinkis, pinnywinkles, pilniwinky, pilni(e)winkies, pirliewinkles.)
[In English use, c 1400, pyrwykes, pyrewinkes. In Scottish use, c 1600, pilliwinkes and pinniwinkis; corrupted by later historical or antiquarian writers, novelists, journalists, etc. to pilniewinks, pinnywinkles, pirliewinkles, etc. Origin unknown: the 15th c. Eng. pyrewinkes coincides with a contemporary spelling of periwinkle (the flower); but there is no obvious connexion of sense. The early forms do not agree (as has sometimes been thought) with those of periwinkle the shell-fish, the forms in -winkle being merely later corruptions after the word had become obsolete soon after 1600.]
An instrument of torture for squeezing the fingers; supposed to resemble the thumbkins of thumb-screw.
1397in W. P. Baildon Sel. Cas. Chanc. (1896) 30 Johan Skypwyth..adonqes esteant viscont de Nicole [= Lincoln], par colour de son office aresta le dit Johan..et lui mist en ceppes..et sur sez mayns vne paire de pyrwykes. 1401Cartular. Abbatiæ S. Edmundi (MS.) lf. 341 in Cowell's Interpr. (1701) Ss ij b, Quendam Robertum Smyth de Bury..Ceperunt..et ipsum..in ferro posuerunt—et cum cordis ligaverunt, et super pollices ipsius Roberti quoddam instrumentum vocatum Pyrewinkes ita strictè et durè posuerunt, quod sanguis exivit de digitis illius. 1591Newes from Scotland (in Pitcairn Crim. Trials I. ii. 215), Her maister..did with the help of others torment her with the torture of the pilliwinkes vpon her fingers. 1596Ibid. 376 The dochter, being sewin yeir auld, but in the pinniwinkis [so MS. Record; in Maclaurin, 1774, pilniewinks]. Ibid. 377 Hir sone tortourit in þe Buitis, and hir dochtir put in þe Pilliewinkis. 1680–1700in Maclaurin's Crim. Cases Introd. 37 Lord Roystoun observes:..‘Anciently I find other torturing instruments were used, as pinniewinks or pilliwinks, and caspitaws or caspicaws [misreading of cashilaws; in Pitcairn I. 275, caschielawis], in the Master of Orkney's case, 24th June 1596... But what these instruments were, I know not’. 1774Ibid. 36 It was pleaded for Alaster Grant, who was indicted for theft and robbery 3rd August 1632, that he cannot pass to the knowledge of an assize, in respect he was twice put to the torture, first in the boots, and next in the pilliewinks or pinniewinks. [1818Scott Br. Lamm. xxiii, They prick us and they pine us, and they pit us on the pinnywinkles for witches. 1830― Demonol. ix. 310 His finger bones were slintered in the pilniewinks. 1865Lecky Ration. I. i. 142 The three principal [tortures]..were the pennywinkis, the boots, and the caschielawis. 1890Spectator 31 May 768 The ‘pirliewinkles’, a form of thumb-screw ingeniously constructed for the express purpose of crushing all the fingers of one hand. ] |