manbote

English

Alternative forms

• manbot

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English mannbōt (“fine paid to the lord of a slain man or vassal”). More at man, bote.

Noun

manbote (plural manbotes or manboten)

1. (law, historical, Anglo-Saxon) A sum paid to a lord as a pecuniary compensation for killing his vassal, servant, or tenant.
   • 1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, (please specify |part=1 to 4), London:

     Manbote of freedom

   • 1688, John Lingard, A History of England:

     Three weeks later an equal sum, under the name of manbote, was paid to the lord, as a compensation for the loss of his vassal.

   • 1962, H.R. Loyns, quoted in NYT, Daily Lexeme: Maegbot, 2011

     If a man was slain a special manbot, or compensation for the loss of a man, had to be paid to the lord side by side with the mægbot to the kin.

References

• “manbote”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• boatmen