amobrn.

Etymology: < Welsh amobr, amwabr, †amobyr, †amwobr (13th cent.: see note) < am- (ultimately < the same Indo-European base as umbe prep.) + gobr payment, fee, recompense (13th cent.; 12th cent. as gwabr ; in later use also gwobr ), related to gobrynu to merit, deserve (13th cent.; < go- ( < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek ὑπο- hypo- prefix) + prynu to purchase, exchange, redeem (Old Welsh prin- ; < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek πρίασθαι to buy); compare Early Irish fo-cren buys, recompenses). Compare post-classical Latin amobrium (1334 in a British source), Anglo-Norman amobres , amobours (1330 or earlier; apparently only in plural). Compare amobreship n. Compare also mover n.²The Welsh legal term originally denoted a payment to a woman's lord in respect of a sexual relationship of any kind (resulting in the loss of virginity); it first appears in a pre-Conquest law code attributed to a 10th-cent. king, but only surviving in 13th-cent. and later manuscripts. In Anglo-Norman and Middle English use, the term was interpreted as referring specifically to marriage. Compare the following earlier example, although it is unclear whether this should be interpreted as showing the Anglo-Norman or the Middle English word:1347 in M. C. B. Dawes Reg. Black Prince (1930) I. 59 [The maiden-fees] amobres [of Cantrefmaur and Kermerdyn]. In form amobresez perhaps reflecting a reinterpretation of the Anglo-Norman plural form as a singular. The Welsh plural is amobrau.