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instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation, introduced into France in 1792 during the Revolution. It consists of two upright posts surmounted by a crossbeam and grooved so as to guide an oblique-edged knife, the back of which is heavily weighted to make it fall forcefully upon (and slice through) the neck of a prone victim.

Previous to the French Revolution, similar devices were in use in Scotland, England, and various other European countries—often for the execution of criminals of noble birth.

A French physician, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who was born at Saintes in 1738 and elected to the National Assembly in 1789, was instrumental in having a law passed requiring all sentences of death to be carried out by “means of a machine.” This was done so that the privilege of execution by decapitation would no longer be confined to the nobles and the process of execution would be as painless as possible. After the machine had been used in several satisfactory experiments on dead bodies in the hospital of Bicêtre, it was erected on the Place de Grève for the execution of a highwayman on April 25, 1792. At first the machine was called Louisette, or Louison, but soon became known as la guillotine. Later the French underworld dubbed it “the widow.” Use of the guillotine continued in France well into the 20th century, diminishing during the 1960s and '70s, with only eight executions occurring between 1965 and the last one in 1977. In September 1981 France outlawed capital punishment and abandoned the use of the guillotine. Compare beheading.

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    Study guide to the events leading up to the French Revolution, from the grandeur of Versailles as King Louis XVI wed Marie Antoinette through the dramatic culmination of the revolutionary period as thousands of dead were left in its wake.