snake-pitn.
1.
a. A large pit containing poisonous snakes into which victims are thrown for execution, or as a test of endurance. historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > place of > snakepit
snake-pit1883
1883 G. Vigfusson & F. Y. Powell Corpus Poet. Boreale II. ix. 346 Anslaug..gives him a charmed coat, which preserves him even in the snake-pit into which he is cast by Ælla, king of the Northumbrians.
1909 Saga-Book of Viking Club VI. i. 73 Ragnarr was captured by King Ella, and cast into a snake pit.
1940–41 Scandinavian Stud. XVI. 32 We may say that the theme of the Snake Tower or Snake Pit is foreign to Europe but is a typical Oriental importation.
1961 H. Treece Jason iii. xxvii. 224 Medea halted at the edge of the snake-pit... Then she lowered herself to the marble rim of the pit and gently eased down among the little snakes.
1977 A. P. Smyth Scandinavian Kings in Brit. Isles 850–880 iii. 36 The account of Ragnarr's invasion of Northumbria and his death in the snake-pit at the hands of King Ælla is found in its most elaborate form in Ragnars saga.
b. In extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > offensiveness > offensive thing, person, or place > [noun]
bysena1525
bysym1568
bastard1675
nasty1825
objectionable1836
man-killer1876
undesirable1883
swine1892
stinker1917
bugger1922
pig1923
snake-pit1941
pisser1957
dickhead1960
1941 Argus (Melbourne) Week-end Mag. 15 Nov. 1/4 Snake pit, sergeants' mess.
1948 S. L. Elliott in E. Hanger Khaki, Bush & Bigotry (1968) 91 Andy Edwards has been promoted and moved up to the snake pit with you and the other snakes.
1956 A. L. Rowse Early Churchills v. 82 He was a man..simple and rigid, in that snake-pit of a Court with its twisting..creatures,..deceitful and insincere.
1966 B. Glemser Dear Hungarian Friend ii. 36 He is at the United Nations... That is the only way to survive in the political snakepit.
1969 N.Y. Review Bks. 21 Aug. 8/1 The venal and compromising snakepit of American politics.
1976 Publishers Weekly 20 Sept. 74/3 All depicted as guilty as hell, conniving, scheming, fighting and feuding. It's a snakepit of a scene.
1977 Listener 25 Aug. 245/1 A snake-pit of imperfect chromatic scales.
2. spec. A psychiatric hospital (after the title of the novel by M. J. Ward: see quot. 1947).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > places for the sick or injured > [noun] > hospital or infirmary > hospital for the mentally ill
bedlam-house1525
dull-house1622
madhouse1649
bedlam1663
lunatic hospital1762
asylum1776
retreat1796
lunatic house1813
lunatic asylum1828
maison de santé1843
idiot asylum1848
rat house1854
bughouse1887
Colney Hatch1891
booby hatch1896
mental hospital1898
booby house1900
nut factory1900
nut collegec1906
nuthouse1906
monkey house1910
booby-hutch1914
nuttery1915
loony bin1919
nut hatch1928
silly house1930
bin1938
snake-pit1947
funny farm1950
1947 M. J. Ward (title) The snake pit.
1960 Sunday Express 15 May 17/4 The snake-pit women's ward.
1968 A. Laski Keeper ii. 22 They had visited him in the snake~pit.
1976 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Apr. 5/1 It's like going back to the days when psychiatric hospitals everywhere were called snakepits.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1883