Knout

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Type of whip

title: "Knout" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["whips", "whipping"] description: "Type of whip" topic_path: "general/whips" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knout" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Type of whip ::

A knout (, ) is a Russian whip that consists of a rawhide thong or a rope attached to a long wooden handle. Commonly used for prodding horses or cattle, knouts were also used for flagellation as a corporal punishment in Russian history. The English word is a spelling-pronunciation of a French transliteration of the Russian word кнут (knut), which means "whip".

Etymology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Наказание_кнутом.jpg" caption="Punishment with a knout"] ::

The word may be derived from the Swedish knutpiska, a kind of whip with knots. The stem knut is of generic Germanic origin; compare with the German Knute, Dutch knoet (both meaning knout) and with Old Norse knutr, Anglo-Saxon cnotta and English knot.

For corporal punishment

According to Brockhaus and Efron, a typical knout used by Russian executioners consisted of a wooden handle about half arshin (35 cm) to which attached was a thick braided rawhide piece, one arshin (70 cm) long. The latter piece ended in a metal ring, to which was attached a wide rawhide belt made as long, also of one arshin length with a stiffened beak-like end.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Jean-Baptiste_Le_Prince,Supplice_du_knout_ordinaire(1766).png" caption=""Punishment with an Ordinary Knout" (1766), depicting the flogging of [[Natalia Lopukhina"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Jean-Baptiste_Le_Prince,Supplice_du_grand_knout(c._1765).png" caption=""Punishment with a Great Knout" (1765)"] ::

Knouts were used in Russia for flogging as formal corporal punishment of criminals and political offenders. The victim was tied to a post or on a triangle of wood and stripped, receiving the specified number of strokes on the back. A sentence of 100 or 120 lashes was equivalent to a death sentence.

Emperor Nicholas I abolished punishment by knout in 1845, after years of deliberation, and replaced it with the pleti,

References

References

  1. "knot {{!}} Etymology of knot by etymonline".
  2. {{cite Efron. Кнут, орудие наказания
  3. Lagny, Germain de. (1854). "The Knout and the Russians: Or, the Muscovite Empire, the Czar, and his people". Harper&Brothers.
  4. a lighter whip, commonly with three tails, which was used previously for punishment as well.{{cite Efron. Плети

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

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