“Pain” in this expression means “penalty”. Though I haven’t looked it up to confirm, I’m pretty confident the word “pain” itself comes from Latin poena via French peine, meaning just that.
(The first time I heard this idiom, the phrase was “on pain of imprisonment”.)
“Pain” in this expression means “penalty”. Though I haven’t looked it up to confirm, I’m pretty confident the word “pain” itself comes from Latin poena via French peine, meaning just that.
(The first time I heard this idiom, the phrase was “on pain of imprisonment”.)