Why this word is great
LYNCHING — [Noun] The extrajudicial execution of a person, especially by hanging, carried out by a mob without legal authority or due process. From the verb 'lynch' (to put to death by mob action without due process of law) + the noun-forming suffix '-ing'. The verb 'lynch' is of debated origin, often attributed to the name of Charles Lynch (1736–1796), a Virginia justice of the peace who presided over irregular trials, or to William Lynch (1742–1820), the purported author of a compact for extra-legal punishment. Unlike assassination, a targeted, often clandestine political removal, or execution, which cloaks itself in the solemn theater of state sanction, lynching is a public, communal spectacle masquerading as justice. It is the rough hemp hissing through a branch, the photographer’s tripod planted before the swollen figure, and the charred smell haunting the town square long after the ashes have cooled—a ritual of terror where the law is supplanted by the older, colder physics of the pack.