ravenstone

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From a calque of German Rabenstein, equivalent to raven +‎ stone.

Noun[edit]

ravenstone (plural ravenstones)

  1. (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.
  2. (UK, dialectal) A gravestone
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