trepalium

• tripālium

From tripālis (“held up by three stakes or pales”) +‎ -ium, from tri- (“three”) +‎ pālus (“stake”, “pale”) from Proto-Italic *trēs + *pākslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“attach, fasten, fix, hang”). Perhaps a calque of Byzantine Greek τριπάσσαλον (tripássalon), from τρι- (tri-, “three”) +‎ πάσσαλος (pássalos, “peg upon which to hang things”) from the same roots.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /treːˈpaː.li.um/, [t̪reːˈpäːlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /treˈpa.li.um/, [t̪reˈpäːlium]

trēpālium n (genitive trēpāliī); second declension (Late Latin, Vulgar Latin, Medieval Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin)

1. A torture instrument consisting of three stakes
   • 578 CE, Aunacharius Autissiodorensis, Concilium Antissiodorense (Council of Auxerre) Canon XXXIII:

     Non licet presbytero, nec diacono, ad trepalium, ubi rei torquentur, stare.

     It is not permitted for a priest, nor a deacon, to stand close to a trepalium, where the guilty are tortured.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• trepalium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)