Word of the day: bastinado

The word of the day is bastinado:

1. a mode of punishment consisting of blows with a stick on the soles of the feet or on the buttocks.
2. a blow or a beating with a stick, cudgel, etc.
3. a stick or cudgel.

1570s, from Sp. bastonada "a beating, cudgeling," from baston "stick," from L.L. bastum (see baton).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bastinado)

"De Long noted that after a week of warm weather, everyone was suddenly 'freezing all the time."  Some used sticks to beat their feet 'as a bastinado,' to bring back their circulation.  This dubious technique, 'though making our feet tingle, hardly added to our comfort.'"

 - Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette