lingchi

See also: língchí

English

Lingchi.

Alternative forms

• ling chi
• leng t'che

Etymology

Borrowed from Mandarin 凌遲 (língchí).

Pronunciation

• enPR: lĭng′chœ′
• Hyphenation: ling‧chi

Noun

lingchi (uncountable)

1. A form of execution used in China from roughly 900 to 1905 C.E., the "death by a thousand cuts", in which the condemned was killed by methodical removal of body parts with a knife.

   Synonym: slow slicing

   • 2007 July 25, Roberta Smith, “Figures Moving as if in a Trance Across an Isolated, Lawless Island”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 November 2022:

     The face of the dying man in the lingchi video monotonously evokes Maria Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer ’s 1928 “Passion of Joan of Arc.”