Buildings where people are locked up as punishment for crimes or while awaiting trial.
From Old North French 'jaole' (cage), derived from Latin 'caveola' (little cage). The word has meant detention facility since medieval times.
The word 'jail' came from the French word for cage, which reveals that prisons were originally just cages—over centuries they became more sophisticated buildings, but the basic idea of containment hasn't changed.
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