Tripalium

[1] The earliest references[specify] from the ancient Roman era use the term to describe a wooden structure designed to securely immobilize a large "fiery animal"[This quote needs a citation] (horse, oxen, cow) during examination or care.

In addition to livestock animals, violent men and women who were thought to behave like a fiery bull had their arms and legs tied down to a tripalium.

In a 582 CE text, the Council of Auxerre,[1] tripalium is used in the context of forbidding clerics to assist torture sessions, and is described as an instrument involving three stakes used to punish only slaves.

[7] These trabiculae are the direct source of architecture unique to the city of Lyon, called the Traboules – transverse structures for accessing apartments.

However, this theory has been contested by a small minority, who argue that an irregularity in the development of the first syllable, which is consistent across all reflexes, points to a different etymological origin.