oubliette (n)

oubliette (n) [ōō΄ blē et΄]

a secret or concealed dungeon with a trap door in the ceiling as its only opening, as in some medieval castles

Notorious oubliettes include those in England’s Chillingham Castle and Warwick Castle, Ireland’s Leap Castle, and the French Bastille.

From the French oublier — to forget < Old French oblider < Vulgar Latin oblītāre, a derivative of the Latin oblītus, past participle of oblīvīscī — to forget; literally, “to wipe, let slip from the mind”
< prefix ob– — away < Latin ob — before, toward, against < Indo-European root epi (also opi) — near, at, against
+ Indo-European root lei– — slimy — in its suffixed form lei-w–

 
 
“The Labour conference was to hold its big debate on Iraq yesterday. So did they discuss it? Of course not! Instead, a furious woman from Unison stormed the podium. ‘I want to know why I have been stopped from bringing a bag of sweeties into the conference. It is bureaucracy gone mad!’ she said.

The chairwoman said gravely that the matter would be referred to the Conference Arrangements Committee, where it will probably disappear like a dead rat in a Bastille oubliette. …

At the time we all looked rather puzzled, until the steward standing near my seat explained: ‘I’ll tell you why they’re banned, they could be used as missiles.’ …

The party of Hardie, Attlee and Bevan, afraid that its speakers might be cut down under a fusillade of Fox’s Glacier mints … .”

– Simon Hoggart, “Tic-Tac Tactics? It Takes Allsorts,” The Guardian

 
 
(Photo credit: From the blog Pilgrim’s Progress, “The Cry of the Forgotten,” July 18, 2005)

~ by nyx on March 13, 2008.