What does weregild mean?
Weregild was a payment made to the family of a person who had been killed, especially under early Germanic and medieval legal custom. The payment could be made by the person responsible for the death or by the offender’s family, and it served as compensation to the victim’s kin. The term also has a broader historical use for compensation for injury, death, or the loss of a person’s labour. Although weregild is no longer part of ordinary modern legal procedure, historians and legal scholars use it to describe systems in which payment to the victim’s relatives played a central role. Its name preserves its original sense closely: Old English wergild was formed from elements meaning “man” and “payment.” Weregild is consequently a useful word for understanding how medieval and ancient societies distinguished compensation for wrongdoing from the later idea of punishment imposed by a state.
nounA payment made to the family of someone who has been killed, especially by the killer or the killer’s kin under early Germanic or medieval law. More broadly, it refers to compensation for injury or death in historical legal systems.
- A payment made to the family of a person who has been killed, especially under early Germanic or medieval law.
- A historical legal payment intended to compensate for injury, death, or the loss of a person’s productive capacity.
"Under the old Germanic code, the offender’s family could pay weregild to the family of the victim."
"The charter records a payment of weregild to the relatives of the deceased."
"Historians use the term weregild when discussing compensation for homicide in Anglo-Saxon legal custom."
The plural is grammatical but uncommon; weregild is usually used as a mass noun for a payment or as a singular noun for an individual payment.
"The surviving records list several weregilds associated with cases of homicide."
Weregild literally meant “payment for a man”: before modern criminal law, a life could be compensated to the bereaved family.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of weregild
Weregild comes from Old English wergild, a compound of wer, meaning “man,” and gild, meaning “payment” or “compensation.” Its English development preserved the sense of a payment made for a life lost through violence. The two components also have related forms in other Germanic languages, while gild is connected in origin with words such as guild, referring to an association formed for mutual payment or contribution.
Related word forms
How weregild is actually used
Weregild is chiefly a historical and legal term rather than an everyday modern word. It usually carries a formal, antiquarian register and refers to customs predating modern criminal courts.
Easily confused with weregild
Wergild is an alternative spelling of the same historical word; weregild is the form commonly used in modern English reference works.