# Reading > Who Said That? >  What does mazzolato mean? It's in The Counte of Monte Cristo

## MeMyselfandI

What does mazzolato mean? It's in The Counte of Monte Cristo on page 114. All I know is that it is a form of execution. But I want to know what it is exacly.

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## Admin

Knocked on the head, as opposed to having your head cut off.

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## SerenaHalliwell

why is it not in any dictonary then?

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## jo_brink

yes. itd b good to find some real info on this. im doin a research paper on things in the book. n since i didnt know wut this is i thot how better of a way to find out. if any one has any sites that could help, please let me know!! thanx!

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## Admin

it is a spanish word, which is why you won't find it in english dictionaries.

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## madsrant

Here is a bit of text, from which you can derive the meaning from. 

The text is from Mannin, ca. 1914

It was still the Rome of Ducas" Count of Monte Cristo," the home of long-haired artists and of Papal "sbirri," where foreign newspapers were vigorously censored, stabbings and religious functions the most prominent events, where the inhuman "mazzolato" executions drew as great crowds as did an occasional "miraculous" picture, where picturesque contadina models waited for hire on the Scala di Spagna, where the streets were with few exceptions narrow and ill-lighted, but where living and wine were ridiculously cheap.

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## Colonel

It's not Spanish; it's Italian. The origin is mazza "mace" and its deriviative mazzuola "mallet or bludgeon, club or cudgel". The condemned was literally bludgeoned to death.

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