Knout

 

The word may be derived from the Swedish knutpiska, a kind of whip with knots. The stem knut is of generic Germanic origin; compare with the German Knute, Dutch knoet (both meaning knout) and with Old Norse knutr, Anglo-Saxon cnotta and English knot.^{[citation needed]}

According to Brockhaus and Efron, a typical knout used by Russian executioners consisted of a wooden handle about half arshin (35 cm (14 in)) to which attached was a thick braided rawhide piece, one arshin (70 cm (28 in)) long. The latter piece ended in a metal ring, to which was attached a wide rawhide belt made as long, also of one arshin length with a stiffened beak-like end.^[1]

 

 

Knouts were used in Russia for flogging as formal corporal punishment of criminals and political offenders. The victim was tied to a post or on a triangle of wood and stripped, receiving the specified number of strokes on the back. A sentence of 100 or 120 lashes was equivalent to a death sentence.^{[citation needed]}

Emperor Nicholas I abolished punishment by knout in 1845, after years of deliberation, and replaced it with the pleti,^[1] a lighter whip, commonly with three tails, which was used previously for punishment as well.^[2]

• Nagaika

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Knout". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

•   The dictionary definition of knout at Wiktionary