tawse means A leather strap or thong which is split into (typically three) tails, used for corporal punishment in schools, applied to the palm of the hands or buttocks. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
tawse is pronounced /tɔːz/.
Why “tawse” is a great word
TAWSE — [Noun] A leather strap, split at one end into several tails, historically used as an instrument of corporal punishment, especially in Scottish schools. From an earlier, now obsolete, singular 'taw' (a thong or whip), with the plural form 'tawse' becoming the standard word for the instrument. Attested from c. 1500. Unlike the birch (a bound scourge of brittle twigs) or the cane (a rigid, solitary rod), the tawse is a calibrated artifact of pliant hide. It is the heavy, oiled hiss of its descent; the sharp, overlapping welts left on a palm; and the schoolmaster’s practiced flick of the wrist that made the separate tails dance—a cold technology of discipline, an education learned through the skin.
Etymology
Apparently a plural form of taw, though attested earlier.
noun
- A leather strap or thong which is split into (typically three) tails, used for corporal punishment in schools, applied to the palm of the hands or buttocks.“I lay about me with the taws
That night and morning I may thrash
Greek Alexander from my flesh, […]”
verb
- To beat with a tawse.