Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Anglo-Saxon and ancient Teutonic law, a kind of fine for manslaughter and other crimes against the person, by paying which the offender freed himself from every further obligation or punishment. The fine or compensation due by the offender varied in amount according to his rank or station and that of the person killed or injured, and also according to the nature of the injnry. It was in general paid to the relatives of him who had been slain, or, in the case of a wound or other bodily harm, to the person who sustained the injury; but, if the cause was brought before the community the plaintiff received only part of the fine, the community, or the king when there was one, receiving the remainder.
Wiktionary
- n. alternative spelling of wergeld.
Examples
“Last week a poster by the name of "wergild" had this to say about the "progress" under McDaniels. wergild wrote: denver is 20th in a 32 team nfl in scoring. so let's count up the mistakes the self appointed genius has made since taking over as dictator:”
“The church placed its own members on the wergild scale.”
“The leader of the recent excavation, Martin Carver, argues that the value of grave goods might represent the ‘wergild’ man-price of the occupant.”
“Carver argues that the wergild for a nobleman was 480 oxen, roughly equivalent to 7 oz 200 g of gold.”
“In some particulars they were less enlightened than the laws of King Liutprand of Lombardy: they kept the old wergild, ordeals, trial by combat, and punishment by mutilation; and decreed death for relapse into paganism, or for eating meat in Lent- though here the priest was allowed to soften the penalty.”
“In 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed, the Austro-Hungarian empire had no choice but to send an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding wergild for the Archduke, or promising war as the alternative.”
“They could ask for wergild, which was paid in cash, or they could take vengeance, which was paid in blood.”
“Hugh's very old-fashioned – he doesn't want wergild.”
“Guest gave him the one wergild (a hundred of silver), which Howard received in the skirt of his cloak; and then Thorbiorn paid one wergild slowly, coin by coin, and said he had no more money; but Guest bade him pay it all.”
“In the second year Biargey again urged Howard to try for a wergild.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wergild’.
-
phrontistery-w
from phrontistery.info
wack, wadmal, waftage, wafture, wagonette, wagtail, wainage, wainscot, wair, waits, wakerife, waldflute and 282 more...
-
The Request Line
This is the place to add words you'd like Charles Harrington Elster to pronounce for you!
swingeing, affiant, dahlia, hydrangea, re, clematis, Nabokov, casu marzu, schadenfreudgeon, nefarious, mewl, manteion and 170 more...
-
know-it-all
eunuch, couvade, ecclesiastes, enigma, inevitable, crucible, genteel, bedlam, baculum, scapulimancy, atrophy, smut and 170 more...
-
A Second Helping of Random Palavery
A continuation of my first list, "A Serving of Random Palavery". Like the first, this list contains words that catch my attention, ring happily in my ears, are fun to speak, or are interesting to ...
bouffoir, mossberry, webisode, barquette, brochidodromous, festooned brochid..., eucamptodromy, eucamptodromous, loment, keenings, moss-trooper, mosstrooping and 138 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wergild.
chained_bear Wow. I guess that's where enthrall comes from! Isn't that nifty! Mar 7, 2007
trivet Thralls were a Viking thing, somewhere between a serf and a slave, I think. There were a bunch of funky rules about thralls that I have very fuzzy recollections about. Maybe they had to wear neck rings? I think they were either captured on raids or people who were destitute enough to put themselves up for thralldom. I'm sure there is info out there... Mar 7, 2007
chained_bear Interesting notes! I didn't know it could be spelled wergild--only saw it as weregild--but it stands to reason. Thanks for posting the usage! WTF is a thrall anyway? Mar 7, 2007
trivet blood money
From wikipedia:
"Wergild was a reparational payment usually demanded of a person guilty of homicide or other wrongful death, although it could also be demanded in other cases of serious crime. The payment of weregild was an important legal mechanism in early northern European societies, such as those of the Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons; the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood revenge. The payment was typically made to the family or to the clan. The word means "man price". If these payments were not made, or refused by the offended party, a blood feud would ensue.
The size of the weregild in cases of murder was largely conditional upon the social rank of the victim. Thralls and slaves technically commanded no weregild, but it was commonplace to make a nominal payment in the case of a thrall and the value of the slave in such a case."
Mar 7, 2007