▪ I. penal, a.1
(ˈpiːnəl)
Forms: 5 penale, -alle, 5–7 penall, 6–7 pœnal, -all, 6– penal.
[a. F. pénal (12–13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. pēnāl-is, prop. pœnālis of or belonging to punishment, f. pœna penalty, ad. Gr. ποινή quit-money, fine.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or relating to punishment. a. Having as its object the infliction of punishment, punitive; prescribing or enacting the punishment to be inflicted for an offence or transgression.
penal laws: ‘those laws which prohibit an act and impose a penalty for the commission of it’ (Wharton); esp. in Engl. and Irish history, ‘penal laws in matters ecclesiastical’ (quot. 1687); spec. the laws inflicting penalties upon Nonconformists and Papists. penal code (in Ireland), a name applied to the successive penal statutes passed in 17th and 18th centuries against Papists. (See Dict. Eng. Hist. 1884 s.v.)
| 1439 Rolls of Parlt. V. 8/2 Notwithstondyng full noble Ordinances penales, that have ben mad therof. 1467 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 403 Alle the articles penalle, ordeyned and affermed by the same. 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 1033/2 Neuer can al the wittes..make any one penal law, such that none innocent may take harme therby. 1687 Jas. II Declar. Lib. Conscience 4 That..the Execution of all..Penal Laws in Matters Ecclesiastical..be immediately Suspended. a 1720 Song, Vicar of Bray, When royal James obtained the crown..The penal laws I hooted down And read the Declaration. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 385 When I behold..Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw. 1782 Burke (title) Letter to a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics. 1845 Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 20 Penal provisions intended for the better preservation of game. 1874 Froude Eng. in Irel. ix. iii. (1881) 350 The House of Commons was indignant..and clamoured for the reimposition of the Penal Laws. 1884 Dict. Eng. Hist. 809/2 The Penal Code, in Ireland, was first felt under James I. Ibid., [The Irish Parliament] set to work [1695] upon the legislation known to infamy as the Irish penal code. Ibid. 810/2 The great Roman Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, by which the last relics of the abominable Penal Code were swept away. |
b. Of an act or offence: Liable to punishment; causing a person to incur punishment; punishable, esp. by law.
| 1472–3 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 60/1 Which eschaunge [of foreign for English money] shuld be unto theym, by dyvers other Statutes, to excessivly grevous and penall. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 745 He..began..to serch out the penall offences, as well of the chiefe of his Nobilitie, as of other Gentlemen. 1673 Marvell Reh. Transp. II. 291 Here is a Law, that not to kneel at the Lords Supper shall be more Penall than Murther. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xv. 217 There is..one species of battery, more atrocious and penal than the rest. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 276 A second edict made it penal to pay more. |
c. Having the nature or character of punishment; constituting punishment; inflicted as, or in the way of, punishment. Also ellipt. as n., (a) (a sentence or period of) imprisonment; (b) a school punishment.
penal servitude, a term introduced into British criminal law in 1853, to designate imprisonment with hard labour at any penal establishment in Great Britain or its dominions; then substituted for transportation.
| 1600 J. Hamilton Facile Traictise 276 This chaingement suld be maid with..a penal satisfaction for sinnes committit. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. v. 300 Wee..might conceave the Deluge not simply penall, but in some way also necessary. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 48 In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire. a 1826 Heber tr. Pindar ii. 106 In chambers dark and dread Of nether earth abide, and penal flame. 1858 Lytton What will he do? vii. ix, His father's misfortune (he gave that gentle appellation to the incident of penal transportation). 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-Bk. Prop. Law xxii. 171 The punishment of a guilty person is..penal servitude for three years. 1867 [see caper n.2 1 c]. 1892 Daily News 17 Nov. 6/6, I was speaking to a youth who had undergone two penals..for picking pockets. 1906 D. Coke Bending of Twig xii. 200 He can write lines, or ‘penals’ instead of going to detentions. 1908 Outlook 26 Dec. 901/2 The very interesting article on the Milton tercentenary..reminds me of a public school where some years ago boys had ‘penals’ selected from ‘Paradise Lost’. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 77 A convict doing penal or doing time i.e. sentenced to penal servitude, is sometimes called a lag. 1937 J. M. West Shrewsbury vi. 71 It was at this time that ‘penals’ came to be written from Milton's Paradise Lost. 1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad xvii. 191 Nick⁓name got four years' penal and his companion eighteen months' hard. |
d. That is payable or forfeitable as a penalty.
| 1623 in N. Shaks. Soc. Trans. (1885) 505 The said Christopher Hutchinson..and the Compl{supt} John Comber entred into one bond or obligacion vnto the said William Jorden in the penall somme of sixty three poundes. 1671 Milton Samson 508 Let another hand, not thine, exact Thy penal forfeit from thy self. 1725 Pope Odyss. viii. 384 Free from shame Thy captives; I ensure the penal claim. 1882 Ogilvie s.v., Penal sum, a sum declared by bond to be forfeited if the condition of the bond be not fulfilled. If the bond be for payment of money, the penal sum is generally fixed at twice the amount. |
e. Used or appointed as a place of punishment.
| 1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 141/1 Penal settlements are designed for the punishment of criminals convicted of very grave offences in the penal colonies. 1851 Whittier Chapel of Hermits 167 Lord, what is man?..chance-swung between The foulness of the penal pit And Truth's clear sky. 1876 Mathews Coinage xxii. 229 Cayenne is..that whole district of French Guiana within which is the penal colony of France. 1908 A. de Horsey in Times 15 Aug. 14/3 It is bad enough that the Isle of Wight at Parkhurst should have been selected as a penal station for the convicts of other parts of England. 1963 T. & P. Morris Pentonville xi. 225 Their reference group remains very firmly their ‘own’ prison, which some of the older men still refer to as their ‘penal station’. |
f. Involving, connected with, or characterized by, a penalty or legal punishment. g. Of, pertaining to, or subject to the penal laws, penal servitude, etc.
| 1647 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 495 They..have ingadged themselves by their pennall boundes..for the payment of the forsaid summes. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2662/4 Lost.., a last Year's Almanack, having in the Cover some Penal Bills for Money. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 626/2 An action is said to be penal when the conclusions of the summons are of a penal nature; that is, when not merely restitution and real damages, but extraordinary damages and reparation, by way of penalty, are concluded for. 1886 J. Monahan Rec. Ardagh & Clonmacnoise 37 In those penal times, Dr. O'Flynn was compelled to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation under very distressing circumstances. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 31 Oct. 8/3 The prisoners are divided into three classes,..Those of the first⁓class, known as the penal class [etc.]. |
2. Painful; severe, esp. in the way of punishment. (Cf. penally 1, penality 2, penalty 1.) Now usu. of taxation and other financial burdens.
| 1490 Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 20 Whiche accions be verry penall to alle mysdoers and offenders in suche accions condempned, and moche profitable aswell to the Kyng as to euery of his Subgettes. a 1656 Bp. Hall Breathings Devout Soul xlix. (1851) 205 Either he [Elijah] knew that chariot..was only glorious, and not penal. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxvi. 279 A law was passed for sharpening laws against Papists: wherein some difficulty had been, because they were made very penal. 1953 ‘M. Innes’ Christmas at Candleshoe i. 14 His father..declares that penal taxation is ephemeral, and that of the really big English properties the ownership has not changed. 1957 Sunday Times 14 July 13/6 The motor and aeroplane, cinema, radio and television, penal taxation of large incomes and compulsory social services have transformed life. 1958 Spectator 15 Aug. 234/1 We have had to struggle with..a penal Bank rate. |
Hence † penal-law v. trans. (Obs. nonce-wd.), to execute a penal law against.
| 1689 Hickeringill Ceremony-Monger v. Wks. 1716 II. 439 No man more zealously cries up the..Acts of Uniformity, when he gets a Nonconformist thereby upon the Hip, and to Penal-Law him. |
▪ II. ˈpenal, a.2 Anat. rare.
[f. pen-is + -al1.]
Pertaining to the penis: = penial a.
| 1867 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. III. ii. 499 The penal portion of the urethra. |