LYNCH

Wild Word Friday!

Linguists generally agree that LYNCH is an eponymous word. That means that it originated from the name of a person. The problem seems to be which person. There are several candidates. The first is a James LYNCH Fitzstephen, a mayor of Galway in Ireland. According to some sources, in 1493, poor Mayor Fitzstephen was forced to hang his own son, who was a convicted murderer. This is a very sad story, but it has a huge problem when it comes to the eponymy of LYNCH. The word LYNCH didn’t enter the English language until several centuries later.  It doesn’t seem plausible that it would hang around (apologies for the pun) waiting a few centuries for people to use the name to describe the punishment.

The second most cited source is the man John LYNCH who followed Daniel Boone into Kentucky. John LYNCH made a habit of stealing horses. He was eventually hanged, but most linguists think it is a stretch (Oh my, puns abound today.) to name LYNCHing after a victim rather than an executioner.

Third, we have the likely source, an executioner who lived during that time when LYNCH was becoming a commonly used word in the English language. That man was Captain William LYNCH, 1742 – 1820.  Captain LYNCH headed a tribunal, which he evidently created, that was organized to catch and punish a group of thieves who were causing havoc in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The good captain and his vigilantes became known as the LYNCH-men. Their code of law was called LYNCH law, and from that most linguists agree that LYNCH became the verb we know and use today.

I think that’s enough discussion about this particularly terrifying punishment. Let’s talk about something else. What’s your favorite flower?

Blessings!

Sue

(Information from The Merriam Webster New Book of Word Histories. Photo from Wikipedia.)