Etymology #4: Work is suffering

Have you ever felt that your job is suffering? If so, you aren't alone.

Ancient Roman records attest to the existence of a torture device called the trepalium, later called the tripalium. This device name means three stakes and resembled something like this. Victims were attached to the stakes, then presumably set on fire. Not many records exist before 582 AD, so we don't know much about this device. But from this word sprang the Latin verb tripaliare with the meaning of 'to suffer', which took two roots into its daughter languages: in French it became travail (work) and in Spanish, first trebajo and then trabajo, trabajar (work, to work). The French word passed into English as trevail and then travel, initially referring to a long, tiring journey, but later taking its meaning in referring only to a journey.

Sources
Tripalium Image