ericn.
/ˈɛrɪk/, U.S. /ˈɛrək/, Irish English /ˈɛrək/ Irish History.attributive.1875 H. J. S. Maine Lect. Early Hist. Inst. vi. 170 ‘Eric’-fines or pecuniary compensation for violent crime.
A blood-fine (see quots.)
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > compensation > [noun] > for man's life
man-botea1000
bloodwitelOE
manworthlOE
wergilda1214
kinbootc1425
eric1587
were1607
blood-fine1818
blood money1826
1587 J. Hooker tr. Giraldus Cambrensis Vaticinall Hist. Conquest Ireland i. xxxv. 23/2 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) II When earike or composition is made among the laie people for anie murther.
a1599 E. Spenser View State Ireland 4 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) In the case of murder..the malefactor shall give unto them [sc. the friends], or to the child, or wife of him that is slain, a recompence, which they call an Eriach.
c1600 J. Dymmok Treat. Ireland (1842) 9 The party offendinge..is alloted to paye to the wife or childe of the party murdered, or to the party agreeved, a kind of satisfaction, termed by them an Iriach.
1612 J. Davies Discouerie Causes Ireland 109 The killing of an Jrish man, was..punnished..by a Fine or pecuniary punishment, which is called an Ericke.
1612 J. Davies Discouerie Causes Ireland 166 Your Sheriffe..shall be welcome to me, but let me knowe his Ericke..afore hand.
a1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 389 All the dead Heaped on the field..Were scarce an eric for his head.
1885 R. Bagwell Ireland under Tudors I. 11 This blood-fine, called an eric, was an utter abomination to the English of the sixteenth century.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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