The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
guillotine
(GIL-uh-teen, GEE-uh-teen) A machine designed for beheading people quickly and with minimal pain. The guillotine, which used a large falling knife blade, was devised by a physician, Joseph Guillotin, during the French Revolution and was used as the official method of execution in France until the twentieth century.
