executioner

What it means

1. An official person who carries out the capital punishment of a criminal.

   He would probably have died by the hand of the executioner, if indeed the executioner had not been anticipated by the populace.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   1 more example

   Underpinning that power was a reign of terror the like of which Chechens had not seen since the days of Stalin. Even the Russian contraktniki, or freelance fighters, were not as feared as Mr Kadyrov's private army of kidnappers, torturers and executioners were.

   2004 May 11, “Prisoners of the Caucasus”, in The Guardian

2. archaicExecutor.
3. A hit man, especially being in some organization.

In a sentence

He would probably have died by the hand of the executioner, if indeed the executioner had not been anticipated by the populace.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
3. Proto-Italic*eks
4. Latinex
5. Latinex-
6. Proto-Indo-European*sekʷ-
7. Proto-Indo-European*sékʷetor
8. Proto-Italic*sekʷōr
9. Latinsequor
10. Latinexsequor
11. Latinexsecūtiō
12. Old Frenchexecution
13. Englishexecution
14. Englishexecutioner

From execution + -er.