Word of the Day

: August 25, 2010

carceral

adjective KAHR-suh-rul

What It Means

: of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

carceral in Context

Every time John walked by the old hospital he was haunted by the abandoned building’s imposing carceral towers and tiny windows.

Did You Know?

Describing a painting of John Howard visiting a prison in 1787, Robert Hughes wrote that Howard was "the pioneer of English carceral reform" (Time Magazine, November 11, 1985). "Prison reform" might be the more common phrase, but the use of "carceral" was by no means unprecedented. Vladimir Nabokov, in his inimitable prose, described a prison scene in Invitation to a Beheading thusly: "The door opened, whining, rattling and groaning in keeping with all the rules of carceral counterpoint." An adjective borrowed directly from Late Latin, "carceral" appeared shortly after "incarcerate" ("to imprison"), which first showed up in English around the mid-1500s; they're both ultimately from "carcer," Latin for "prison."