| 释义 |
† brehon Obs. exc. Hist.|ˈbriːhən|
Also 6 breighoon, 7 brehan.
[ad. Irish breathamh or breitheamh, pl. breitheamhuin (pronounced ˈbrɛəvɪn), in OIr. brithem, gen. brithemon ‘judge’, f. breth judgement.]
An ancient Irish judge.
a1581Campion Hist. Irel. vi. (1633) 19 The Breighoon (so they call this kind of Lawyer) sitteth him downe on a banke. 1596Spenser State Irel. 4 In the case of murder, the Brehon, that is their judge, will compound between the murderer and the friends of the party murdered. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xviii. 345 In the territories of each Sept, judges called Brehons..sat..to determine controversies. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. ii. 24 They are..the creation of a class of professional lawyers, the Brehons.
b. Brehon law, the code of law which prevailed in Ireland before its occupation by the English, finally abolished in the reign of James I.
1596Spenser State Irel. 4 What is that you call Brehon Law?..It is a rule of right unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one to another. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. v. ii. 327 One that hath quite abolished a slauish Brehon Law. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. 375 Governed by different laws; the Irish by the Brehan law, and the English there by the laws of England. 1757Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 334 The narrow notions of our lawyers, who abolished the authority of the Brehon law, and at the same time kept no monuments of it. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. II. 248 The Brehon traditions—a convenient system, which was called law, but which in practice was a happy contrivance for the composition of felonies. |