twyhyndman

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English twihynde / twyhynde man(n).

Noun

twyhyndman (plural twyhyndmen)

1. (criminal law, historical) A man worth two hundred shillings in wergeld.
   • 1849, John Allen, Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], page 115:

     In this computation a twelfhyndman was valued at six ceorls or twyhyndmen, because the weregild of a twelfhyndman was equal to the weregilds of six ceorls.

   • 1885, John Beddoe, The Races of Britain: A Contribution to the Anthropology of Western Europe, Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, […]; London: Trübner and Co., […], page 63:

     The English burgess was probably eorl or ceorl, twelfhyndman or twyhyndman, according to his birth and descent;

   • 1915, E[phraim] Lipson, An Introduction to the Economic History of England, volume I (The Middle Ages), London: A. & C. Black, Ltd., […], page 27:

     They are grouped with the sokemen and liberi homines as twyhyndmen whose wergild was two hundred shillings, as distinct from the thegn class or twelfhyndmen whom to slay involved a penalty of twelve hundred shillings.

Related terms

• sixhyndman
• twelfhyndman