Plural of gemony; a form of public curse or invocation against someone in medieval legal proceedings.
From Old English and Middle English, ultimately from Latin 'gemonia' (relating to Gemoniae, a place in Rome where criminals were exposed). The term reflects Roman judicial traditions carried into medieval English law.
The 'ignominy' of being cursed at the Gemoniae Steps in Rome was so infamous that medieval English lawyers borrowed the term to describe their most severe public denunciations, making it one of law's oldest dramatic traditions.
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