lynch

Where does the word "lynch" come from? It comes from Irish Lynch, passing through American English before entering English (1830s).

Lynch’s story begins in Irish: Lynch meant “a family name.” An Irish surname, from Ó Loingsigh or the Anglo-Norman Lynch family, one of the fourteen 'Tribes of Galway'. By 1780, the word had taken hold in American English as Lynch's law. Usually traced to Charles Lynch, a Virginia justice who ran extralegal courts punishing Loyalists in 1780, though Captain William Lynch of Pittsylvania County is a rival claimant. It reached English by 1830s as lynch. Hardened into mob killing; the Tuskegee Institute recorded about 4,700 lynchings in the US between 1882 and 1968, most of them of Black Americans. Today, lynch means (of a mob) to kill someone for an alleged offence without a legal trial.

1. Stage 1 · Irish · medieval Lynch "a family name", an Irish surname, from Ó Loingsigh or the Anglo-Norman Lynch family, one of the fourteen 'Tribes of Galway'.
2. Stage 2 · American English · 1780 Lynch's law "punishment without trial", usually traced to Charles Lynch, a Virginia justice who ran extralegal courts punishing Loyalists in 1780, though Captain William Lynch of Pittsylvania County is a rival claimant.
3. Stage 3 · American English · 1830s lynch "to kill by mob action", hardened into mob killing; the Tuskegee Institute recorded about 4,700 lynchings in the US between 1882 and 1968, most of them of Black Americans.