Other forms: penitentiaries
A penitentiary is a large prison for people serving long terms. State penitentiary, sent to the penitentiary, the old penitentiary.
The name carries a whole theory: the Quakers who built the first one in Pennsylvania in the 1790s meant it as a place of penitence, where silence and solitude would produce reform. The theory failed and the name stayed. It is an American word.
1nounpenitentiaryA large prison for long sentences.
“He spent twenty years in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.”
penitentiary is a prison.
PENitentiary → the big PEN they lock you in
The big pen they lock you in when the sentence is long.
hooks ontopen
Medieval Latin penitentiarius means a place of penitence. The Quakers of Pennsylvania gave the prison its name in the 1790s.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₁-
Latin
paenitentia — penitence
Medieval Latin
pēnitentiārius — place of penitence
Middle English
penitentiary
English, today
penitentiary
From Middle English penitentiary, from Medieval Latin pēnitentiārius (“place of penitence”), from Latin paenitentia (“penitence”), term used by the Quakers in Pennsylvania during the 1790s, describing a place for penitents to dwell upon their sins.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA