''Judas window''

[janeslogin]

Do you call the little peephole in the door a ‘‘Judas window’’?

Do you know why it is sometimes called a Judas window?

[engineer_comp_geek]

I’ve never heard it called that.

I poked around on google a bit, and found that they can be called a Judas Window, a Judas Hole, or a Judas Trap. The term can apply to a peephole on a front door, or can also be used for a peephole on a prison door so that the guards can look in on the prisoner without the prisoner seeing them. The peephole on some cameras is also apparently sometimes called a Judas Hole. Apparently, even two way mirrors can sometimes be called a Judas Window as they, like the peephole, allow someone to look through to the other side without being seen.

As for the origin, I found one site that said it came from an old painting where guards were watching Judas through a peephole (the painting and artist weren’t named), and I found another site that said it came from old church peepholes that priests could look out through and make sure that the person seeking entrance was not of ill intent (a “Judas”). Neither explanation had any sort of cite.

[samclem]

From the OED

@OED

3. A small aperture or lattice in a door, orig. the door of a prison cell, through which a person can look without being noticed from the other side; a spyhole, a peephole. See also Compounds 1b. Now somewhat arch.

1837 Ward’s Misc. 15 Nov. 727/2 Following the slow march of that whitish square that the Judas at my door cuts out upon the dark wall opposite to me.

1860 G. A. Sala Baddington Peerage II. xxvii. 191 The turnkey…turned the huge key in the lock—(there was a ‘Judas’, or small trap, open in the door itself).

1883 Cent. Mag. Nov. 74/2 A thick oaken door with a judas.

1956 J. Baldwin Giovanni’s Room ii. iii. 164 He described to us in avid, nostalgic detail the barred windows, the barred doors, the judas, the guards standing at far ends of corridors, under the light.

1976 M. Dearnley in A. Richards Penguin Bk. Welsh Short Stories 221 Mrs Earnshaw had a judas for inspecting callers, but even so appeared tardily, peeping over the six-inch chain that protected her.

2004 B. Hambly Dead Water (2005) vii. 120 January…pressed his eye to the Judas in the door. ‘That damn deputy Rees arrested both me and my master, on a lie.’