alfet
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Medieval Latin alfetum, from Old English alfæt (“fire-vat”), from āl (“fire”) + fæt (“vat”).
Noun[edit]
alfet (plural alfets)
- (historical) A cauldron of boiling water into which an accused person plunged his forearm, used as a form of trial in Medieval England.
- [1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “Alfet”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes I (A–H), London: […] James and John Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 59, column 2:
- ALFET, antiently ſignified the Cauldron in which boiling Water was put, for the Accuſed to plunge his Hand in up to the Elbow, by way of Trial of Purgation.]
- 1981, Edmund Apffel, The Last Days at St. Saturn's, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, →ISBN, page 40:
- Miss Twig, head bowed at the far end of the table, continued to eat placidly, but Jacko fixed her with a hard look. "His rooms, huh? Eh, Twigs," he said, "'tis the alfet for a ewbrice." ¶ Dimple gurgled, swallowed, and said, "And what, Jacko boy, might an alfet be?" ¶ Jacko grinned. "Yer tub a boilin' water. For duckin' class offenders."
References[edit]
- “alfet, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. - “alfet”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
