Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cucking stool

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.51 in modern English

Syllables: cuck-ing s-tool
IPA

21

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

3

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A kind of chair to which a person (such as a scold or dishonest tradesman) was fastened in order to be punished and socially humiliated, usually by being pelted and hooted at by a mob in front of their own house, but sometimes being taken to water and ducked.

Example Sentences

"[…] while in the same breath the Fleming exclaimed, “Beware the cucking-stool, Dame Scant o' Grace,” while he conducted the noble youth across the court."
"Whenever officers resorted to corporal punishment of brewers, then, it seems that cucking-stools were sometimes reserved for brewsters (as well as for other female offenders). Yet if the cucking-stool was more a female punishment and the pillory (or other fates) more often reserved for men, the distinctions in the middle ages were still fluid, and their significance is hard to gauge."
"Orders to build cucking stools riddle local records.¹⁴ In Calne in 1675 the view of the hundred ordered the Lord of Calne to build a stool or face a forty-shilling fine.¹⁵ In 1684 the view raised the fine to thirty pounds, but by 1687 Calne still lacked a cucking stool."

Etymology

From about 1215. Origin uncertain. The variant ducking stool is a later (from 1597) corruption. The meaning of cuck here may be a long obsolete nursery word for feces, as reflected in Old English cac, defying sound changes as have words like Mama and Papa. The chair was once described as Latin cathedra stercoris; why, though, this punishment should have this name has not been convincingly explained.

Inflected Forms

cucking stools (plural)

Phrases

cuck chair

Frequently Paired Words

pillory stocks cuck chair

Synonyms

castigatory ducking stool scolding stool stool of repentance trebuchet tumbril

Questions

What does cucking stool mean?: A kind of chair to which a person (such as a scold or dishonest tradesman) was fastened in order to be punished and socially humiliated, usually by being pelted and hooted at by a mob in front of their own house, but sometimes being taken to water and ducked.
Where does cucking stool come from?: From about 1215. Origin uncertain. The variant ducking stool is a later (from 1597) corruption. The meaning of cuck here may be a long obsolete nursery word for feces, as reflected in Old English cac, defying sound changes as have words like Mama and Papa. The chair was once described as Latin cathedra stercoris; why, though, this punishment should have this name has not been convincingly explained.

How to pronounce cucking stool

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