WERGILD

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  WERGILD, or WEREGILD, old Eng. law. The price which in a barbarous age, a 
  person guilty of homicide or other enormous offence was required to pay, 
  instead of receiving other punishment. 4 Bl. Com. 188. See, for the 
  etymology of this word, and a tariff which was paid for the murder of the 
  different classes of men, Guizot, Essais sur l'Histoire de France, Essai 
  4eme, c. 2, Sec. 2.