outlaw

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English outlawe, also utlage,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ūtlaga (“an outlaw”),^[5][6][7] borrowed from Old Norse útlagi (“an outlaw”),^[8][6][7][9] a noun from útlagr (“outlawed, banished”),^[8][6][10] formed from út (“out”) and lǫg (“law”), the plural of lag.^[6][7][9] The OED calls the source "early Scandinavian", comparing Old Swedish utlagha beside the Old Icelandic noun and adjective.^[11] The parts are the words out and law;^[6][12] Skeat compares Latin ex lēx (“lawless”).^[13] The verb is inherited from Old English ūtlagian (“to banish, declare an outlaw”), from the noun.^[6][4][2] The English noun was in turn borrowed as Medieval Latin utlaga (from 1086 in British sources) and into Anglo-Norman as utlage (by about 1140).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person put outside the law and so deprived of its benefits and protection: in Old English, in Ælfric's Grammar (about 1000), where ūtlaga glosses Latin exlex and exul.^[11][4][5] Etymonline notes that it was once lawful for anyone to kill such a person.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Outlawry was a sentence of law, and the word appears in the laws of Æthelred and Cnut, which order "God's outlaws" out of the land.^[5][14][11] By about 1200 it was also used of anyone who lived without regard for the law, a criminal or a fugitive from justice;^[11] Etymonline dates this sense only to 1880, while the OED has it from before 1200.^[6][11] In the 13th century the word could also mean simply an exile.^[11] Johnson (1755) gave both "one excluded from the benefit of the law" and "a robber; a bandit".^[15] From 1599 it was extended to a wild or hunted animal,^[11] and in Australia and North America from 1885 to an unmanageable horse.^[11][16] The verb, Old English ūtlagian, first meant to declare a person an outlaw; from about 1400 it also meant to ban or make illegal, and since 1647 to deprive of legal force, a sense now kept in the law of the United States and Canada.^[11][17] The adjective, "outlawed", goes back to Old English; its modern use for something illegal or unorthodox dates from about 1700, and an outlaw strike, without union authority, from 1920.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – ūtlaga, a person put outside the law, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[11][4]
• 1055 – the verb, to declare an outlaw, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[11]
• before 1200 – a lawless person, a criminal on the run.^[11]
• c. 1300 – Middle English outlawe, noun and verb.^[4]
• c. 1400 – to ban, make illegal.^[11]
• 1599 – a wild or hunted animal.^[11]
• 1647 – to deprive of legal force.^[11]
• 1885 – an unmanageable horse.^[11][16]
• 1920 – outlaw strike, an unofficial strike.^[11]
• 1935 – US slang, a prostitute working without a pimp.^[11][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A person declared to be outside the law and deprived of its protection: The rebel lord was proclaimed an outlaw.^[17][2][11]
2. A fugitive from the law, especially a habitual criminal: a gang of outlaws in the hills.^[17][11]
3. A wild or untamed animal, especially an unmanageable horse.^[17][11][16]

Verb

1. To make something illegal; to ban: The town outlawed fireworks after the fire.^[17][2][11]
2. (historical) To declare someone an outlaw and deprive them of the law's protection.^[17][2][11]
3. (US law) To deprive a contract or claim of legal force.^[17][11]

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to outlaws; illegal or renegade: an outlaw band.^[2][11]
2. Of a strike, held without the authority of a trade union; unofficial.^[11][2]

Word family

• outlawry

Related words

• out
• law

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins