penitentiary

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   used for punishment or reform of criminals or wrongdoers

   Penitentiary institutions.

From Middle English penitentiary, from Medieval Latin pēnitentiārius (“place of penitence”), from Latin paenitentia (“penitence”), term used by the Quakers in Pennsylvania during the 1790s, describing a place for penitents to dwell upon their sins.

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