wergeld

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wargeld,^[2] also wer-geld,^[3] inherited from Old English wergeld, the Anglian and Kentish form, with West Saxon wergield and wergild and late weregild,^[4][5] a compound from Old English wer (“man”) + geld (“payment, tribute”).^[5][2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged traces the compound to prehistoric West Germanic.^[6] It matches Old Frisian wergeld, Old High German wergelt, Middle Dutch weergelt and Dutch weergeld;^[4][6] the equivalent term in Old Norse is manngjǫld.^[4] The first element is related to Latin vir, Old Norse ver and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂 (wair),^[7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wī-ro- (“man”),^[2] and the second to Old High German gelt (“payment”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The price set on a man's life according to his rank: in Old English it could be claimed from a slayer, or exacted from certain criminals as a penalty, and the word seems interchangeable with wer, the commoner form in the later laws.^[9][10] The OED's first quotation is from before 1214, in the Scottish Assise Will.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The value rose on a fixed scale from the churl to the king,^[6] and it was paid to the kin or lord of the dead as compensation, which let the slayer's family avoid a blood feud.^[11][6][5] It also served as a standard by which other legal matters were regulated.^[9] Antiquaries took up the Old English forms again in the 17th century,^[12] and the three Old English types wergeld, wergild and weregild are all represented in the modern forms.^[4]

Timeline

• Old English – compensation for a slain man, the value of a man's life.^[9][10]
• before 1214 – the price set on a man, in a law text printed in the Acts of Parliaments of Scotland.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to the 13th century.^[6]
• 17th century – the Old English forms revived by antiquaries.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law, the value set on a person's life according to rank, payable by a slayer as compensation to the victim's kin or as a fine for certain crimes.^{[6][13][7][11][4]}

Related words

• werewolf
• virile
• yield
• geld

Usage notes

The head spelling varies by dictionary: the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged enter the word as wergild,^[4][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Hoad have wergeld.^[2][12] Wehrgeld comes from an incorrect German form,^[4] and Etymonline calls weregeld erroneous.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press