What does oubliette mean?
: a dungeon with an opening only at the top.
How do you pronounce Oubliettes?
Do you pronounce the L in polka?
For “polka“, it says that in BE (in the UK) the L is always pronounced, while in AE (in the US) both pronunciations are correct: with and without the L. For “polka-dot” the WR dictionary only lists the “without the L” AE pronunciation.
What is an oubliette and where does the word come from?
An oubliette (same origin as the French oublier, meaning “to forget”) is a basement room which is accessible only from a hatch or hole (an angstloch) in a high ceiling; however, the description of these basement rooms as “dungeons” stems from the romanticised castle studies of the 19th century.