HALIFAX

PRONUNCIATION: (HAL-uh-faks)

MEANING: noun: Hell.

ETYMOLOGY: After Halifax, a town in West Yorkshire, England. Earliest documented use: 1630.

NOTES: Halifax, a town in England, today may be known for toffee, but at one time it had a reputation for harsh punishment. Even petty crime meant being sent to the gibbet (an early form of guillotine). The poet John Taylor wrote a poem “Beggar’s Litany” (1622) that includes the line: “From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us!”
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HALL FAX - the facsimile machine is shared by everyone on the corridor

HALI FOX - vulpine who lives in a stand of ilex bushes

HALF-AX - a short-handled lightweight chopping tool