TIL the guillotine was named after a man who neither invented it nor believed in the death penalty.

The guillotine was named after Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a surgeon who didn’t believe in public executions and was appalled that while nobility was given merciful deaths, the masses went through extreme suffering during their executions. He spoke out about this, advocating that all killings should be painless and the same regardless of class if the death penalty continued.

It ended up being named after him as more of a joke because of something he allegedly said about the device being as quick as a twinkling of an eye. The new name stuck. The original name, named after the true inventor, Antoine Louis (the louisette), ceased, and the official name assigned by the government was guillotine.

The family was so embarrassed by the association that they legally changed their last names.

  • Tetsuo@jlai.luEnglish
    461·
    11 days ago

    A small typo :

    • It’s Antoine Louis.

    Antoine is a fairly common French name.

  • Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    226·
    11 days ago

    I dont believe in the death penalty either. Guilloting the rich is t about penalizing them. Its about cutting off the infection because it is too severe and too rampant for any softer recourse.

    • bitcrafter@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      10 days ago

      I mean, they only have the power to do these things because we actively give it to them, so if we just stopped doing that then we would not need to also chop off their heads.

    • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      I believe some people deserve the death penalty. But I also do not trust the state with this power, so therefore I cannot support the legalization of executions.

      But while the current system lasts, if I was on a jury, I will not hesitate to approve of death penalty if the defendent is absolutely disgusting, such as that racist who did a shooting at a black church.