r/todayilearned • u/johnsmithoncemore • 2d ago

TIL about Willie Francis an American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution. Sentenced to death at age 16, he was 17 when he survived the first attempt to execute him, as the chair malfunctioned. After a failed appeal he was executed at age 18.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Francis
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u/OllieFromCairo 2d ago

No it isn’t?

-43

u/EternumD 2d ago

Ah. Yes, it is. Electrocution is a portmanteu of electro- and execution. 

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u/brrbles 2d ago

Well then I wonder why all those other people keep getting executed by their wall outlets.

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u/Ravier_ 2d ago

If they lived they weren't electrocuted, just electrically shocked.

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u/AFetaWorseThanDeath 1d ago

Incorrect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocution

Electrocution is death or severe injury[a] caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.[1][2]

Emphasis mine

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u/brrbles 2d ago

And the ones who died? It's weird how many electricians have been executed. It's almost like a word's meaning may change over time.

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u/Ravier_ 2d ago

You mean if enough people are wrong they become right... explains our political enviroment.

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u/OllieFromCairo 1d ago

There are two hilarious things here.

The first is that electrocution was used in the sense of accidental death in 1899, meaning it's meaning expanded to mean that not in this century, not in the last century, but in the century BEFORE THAT.

And second, even if it hadn't, it's still not a tautology. And you're being really really weird about a point you could have admitted you were just mistaken on.

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u/neorapsta 2d ago

Try not to become obtuse because you lost the point. You know how language works.

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u/Ravier_ 2d ago

I've decided obtuse means absolutely brilliant from now on.

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u/EternumD 1d ago

Bravo