- gehenna (n.)
- "hell," 1620s (earlier "a place of torture," 1590s), from Church Latin gehenna (Tertullian), from Greek geenna, from post-biblical Hebrew gehinnom "Hell, place of fiery torment for the dead," figurative use of the place name Ge Hinnom "the Valley of Hinnom," southwest of Jerusalem, where, according to Jer. xix:5, children were sacrificed to Moloch. Middle English had gehenne (late 15c.) from Middle French gehenne.
