Etymology

peine forte et dure

Today it means: Crushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights. Full definition →

Middle French peine
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Middle French · derived frompeine
  2. English todaypeine forte et dure

Law French, from Middle French peine forte et dure (“severe and hard punishment”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.