third degree
intensive questioning
TRANSLATION
to give so. the third degree = jemanden schonungslos ins Verhör nehmen (Am.)
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"The company's head of security gave everyone the third degree after the goods were stolen"
Did you
know?
the third degree
Thanks to old Hollywood cops and robbers movies, "the third degree" is now synonymous with police interrogation with bright lights and rubber hoses and without the benefits of fair legal representation.
But where did this phrase come from? And what are the first two degrees?
The phrase comes from freemasonry. To become a Third-Degree or Master Mason, the highest rank, one must submit to questioning. The questioning associated with a Third-Degree Mason dates to at least 1772. Some sources say the questioning is long and intense, others that it is a mere formality, but whichever is true, the idea that the Masons' testing was an ordeal became fixed in the public mind. So, by 1880 the term became used for any long an arduous questioning or interrogation.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the term began to be applied, outside of Masonic rituals, to police interrogations, and nowadays to any kind of intense questioning.
Synonyms
examination, assay, audit, battery, checking, checkup, cross-examination, diagnosis, dissection, exam, grilling, inquest, inquiry, inquisition, inspection, interrogation, investigation, once-over, probe, quest, questioning, questionnaire, quiz, scrutiny, the eye, third degree, trial
Thanks to old Hollywood cops and robbers movies, "the third degree" is now synonymous with police interrogation with bright lights and rubber hoses and without the benefits of fair legal representation.
But where did this phrase come from? And what are the first two degrees?
The phrase comes from freemasonry. To become a Third-Degree or Master Mason, the highest rank, one must submit to questioning. The questioning associated with a Third-Degree Mason dates to at least 1772. Some sources say the questioning is long and intense, others that it is a mere formality, but whichever is true, the idea that the Masons' testing was an ordeal became fixed in the public mind. So, by 1880 the term became used for any long an arduous questioning or interrogation.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the term began to be applied, outside of Masonic rituals, to police interrogations, and nowadays to any kind of intense questioning.
Synonyms
examination, assay, audit, battery, checking, checkup, cross-examination, diagnosis, dissection, exam, grilling, inquest, inquiry, inquisition, inspection, interrogation, investigation, once-over, probe, quest, questioning, questionnaire, quiz, scrutiny, the eye, third degree, trial
