What does eric mean?
An eric is a compensation payment—often made in cattle or other goods—required under early Irish and Scottish Gaelic law from a person or family responsible for homicide or grave injury. The institution reflects a legal culture in which monetary restitution, negotiated between kindreds, could avert cycles of vengeance and settle even killing without further bloodshed. Closely comparable to the Anglo-Saxon wergild, the eric was assessed according to the status of the victim and codified in texts such as the Irish Brehon laws. Today the word survives only in historical and legal scholarship concerning medieval Ireland and Scotland, making it a genuine rarity in modern English. It must be distinguished, chiefly by capitalization, from Eric, the widespread Scandinavian-derived personal name borne by kings and countless ordinary people alike.
nounAn eric is a compensation payment, typically of cattle or goods, exacted under early Irish and Scottish Gaelic law from a person or kin-group guilty of homicide or other serious injury.
- A compensation payment (especially of cattle) required under early Irish and Scottish Gaelic law from those guilty of homicide or serious injury.
- The capitalized form, Eric, is a male given name of Old Norse origin.
"Under Brehon law, the killer's family was obliged to pay an eric to the victim's kin."
"The Brehon laws set out precisely how much eric each rank of victim was owed."
"In medieval Scotland, disputes that might otherwise have led to feud were often settled by an eric paid to the injured clan."
Rarely used in the plural; the term usually appears with singular determiners such as "an eric" when discussing individual payments.
"The manuscripts record the various erics payable for injuries of differing severity."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of eric
The word comes from Old Irish éric (also rendered eiric), meaning compensation or penalty, the term used in the native Irish legal tradition preserved by the Brehon laws. It passed into Scots and English usage to describe the analogous compensation payments of Gaelic Scotland. It is historically unrelated to the Scandinavian given name Eric.
How eric is actually used
"Eric" as a legal term is a rare, historical word found mainly in discussions of Celtic and medieval Scottish law; it is almost always encountered in scholarly or antiquarian contexts and should not be confused with the very common given name Eric.
Easily confused with eric
Capitalized 'Eric' is the common Scandinavian-derived personal name; lowercase 'eric' is the rare historical term for a Gaelic blood-money payment.