Ordeal: Word Perfect
Posted in Interesting Words on Friday, 18 February 2011
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Someone you know has just done very badly in their end of term exams. Called into the headmaster’s office to explain himself he emerges somewhat pale-faced half an hour later, and says, “Phew! That was an ordeal.”
What he means is that he has just endured a very nasty interview with the headmaster. But where did this word come from?
In medieval times, trial by ordeal was a means of proving a person’s innocence or guilt. The suspect was made to endure extreme physical pain of some sort, like having to plunge his hand into builing water.
If he escaped unhurt and unmarked, he was presumed innocent. This was because it was felt that God had intervened to protect him.
Nobles suspected of a crime had to endure the ordeal by fire. The accused man had to walk across nine red-hot ploughshares. If he survived the ordeal he was innocent.
Witches were tried by tying and throwing them into a river. If they floated, they were guilty, if they sank they were innocent!
Somehow, it hardly seems a very reliable form of justice, does it?
This edited article originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 903 published on 12 May 1979. We are able to license textual material. Please contact us for details.