 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Martinet" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Themartinet (/ˈmɑːrtɪnɪt/ ⓘ[1]) is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, described below.
A martinet is a short,scourge-like (multi-tail) type ofwhip made of a wooden handle of about 25 centimetres (9.8 in) in length and about 10 lashes of equal, relatively short length. The lashes are usually made ofleather, but sometimessoap-stiffened cords are used in place of leather. It was a traditional instrument ofphysical punishment in France and other European countries. In French, it also refers to a similar dusting implement; the type for chastisement was also known asfouet d'enfant, meaningchild's whip. The lashes are light, so they are ineffective unless the child is whipped naked. The advantage is they give a stinging pain on bare skin, but will not cause an injury.
The martinet was often applied on the calves, so that the children did not have to disrobe. Otherwise it was usually applied on the bare buttocks, adding humiliation to the physical pain, like the English and Commonwealthcaning,birching, navalcat o' nine tails, Americanpaddling, et cetera.
Around 1962, annual production in France was estimated at 300,000 per year. Approximately 33-50% of French households were estimated to currently or formerly own a martinet.[2]
It is now consideredabusive to use a martinet topunish children. However, martinets were still sold in thepet section of Frenchsupermarkets. Many believe that a large share of those sold are meant for use on children, not pets, or at least to threaten them. Nowadays, however, many supermarkets in France have stopped selling the martinet, even in the pet section.
The martinet is also used as an implement inerotic spanking scenes, hard to distinguish from theflogger, but which is usually lighter.
The term was used for an external pupil of acollège (i.e., a kind of French high school, especially Catholic).Jean Bodin, quoting the examination of three witches byPaolo Grillandi of Castiglione at the Castello San Paolo,Spoleto, in hiswritings about demonology records that the witches referred to the Devil asMaster Martinet (Maître Martinet), or theLittle Master (Petit maître).[citation needed][clarification needed (seetalk)]
In English, the termmartinet usually refers not to the whip but to those who might use it: those who demand strict adherence to setrules and mete out punishment for failing to follow them. This sense of the word is reputedlyderived from the name ofJean Martinet, Inspector General of the army ofLouis XIV, such that its relationship to the word's earlier sense is merely coincidental.
In an extended sense, a martinet is any person who believes strict adherence to rules andetiquette is paramount. Martinets often use etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trumpethics, to the point that etiquette loses its ethical ground. In 1977,Time magazine famously referred to the Ugandan dictatorIdi Amin as a "strutting martinet".[3]
A Frenchhomonym, from the bird nameMartin and suffix -et, is theswift.
In French, martinet also means a type ofhammer, adiminutive ofmarteau (fromLatinmartulus, "little hammer").[4][5]
Based on sales figures from druggists, department stores, wholesalers and artisanal manufacturers, I estimated French production of martinets at 300,000 per year. Taking into account the population of martinable children, the probable duration of use of a family object, I arrived at an approximation of one family in two or three having or having had a martinet.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)