Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Roman antiquity, a prison for slaves attached to a Roman villa or farm; a house of correction.
Examples
“ergastulum' could again breathe and see daylight: and here we have religion.”
“I am not made for battles in the sunlight — the flashing of swords troubles my sight; it is a disease, I lived too long in the ergastulum.”
“Spendius, who had spent three years in the ergastulum, was but imperfectly acquainted with the different quarters.”
“As he bent his steps towards the purple factories he passed before the ergastulum, which was a long house of black stone built in a square pit with a small pathway all round it and four staircases at the corners.”
“When on a level with the ergastulum, under a palm tree, a voice was raised, a mournful and supplicant voice.”
“The parks were broken up, the trenches drained, the doors of the ergastulum open.”
“He had hopes, too, of ultimately catching the good attorney napping, and leading him too, bound and docile, into his ergastulum, although he was himself just now in jeopardy from that quarter.”
“The general appearance is that of an ergastulum like Umm”
“We all like showing scars received in battle; the wounds of the ergastulum, less.”
“Yet while it is true that in many ways the slave's lot might be miserable (the ergastulum), and inhuman (the Roman slave might technically not marry), and immoral (Petronius: "nil turpe quod dominus jubet"), yet here too, human nature has risen above its own philosophies, laws, and conventions.”
Lists
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Jail Terms
Synonyms for 'jail.' Some of these shamelessly pilfered from spicolli's list: http://www.wordnik.com/lists/the-pokey-the-b...
jail, prison, can, big house, slammer, clink, pen, oubliette, cage, cooler, solitary, penitentiary and 64 more...
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Prolagus Ergastolo means "life imprisonment" in Italian. May 20, 2009
cryptofascistbbq A prison-like building on a large estate, used for housing slave workers (in quot. 1891, an urban prison for slaves).
OED May 19, 2009