Archaic Definition of the Week – Skimmington

19 November 2010
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publishingskimmington /SKIM ing ton/ n A ceremony in which a man whose wife beat him or cheated on him was publicly ridiculed.

The skimmington had its heyday in English villages several hundred years ago.

-Depraved and Insulting English, by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea.

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