bloodwite
/ˈblʌdˌwʌɪt/(also bloodwit) Law
noun
1 Feudal Law. A fine payable for the offence of shedding blood; (also) a legal action for this offence; (occasionally) †the offence itself ( obsolete ). Also: the right of levying this fine; (occasionally) †the privilege of exemption from it ( obsolete ). Now historical.
- To be distinguished from fight-wite, a fine for the related offence of fighting. Bloodwite was payable to the king or to the lord in whose jurisdiction the offence was committed. According to oral tradition reported in Domesday Book and in a series of forged charters, the fine was exacted from the time of Edward the Confessor (or earlier); however, verifiable evidence is wanting, and use of the term in an authentic legal document is first attested in a late copy of a (genuine) charter of William the Conqueror dating from 1068..
2 Generally. A penalty for murder, especially (usually in form bloodwit) in Islamic jurisprudence.
Origin
Old English; earliest use found in Writ of Edward the Confessor, Westminster. From blood + wite. Compare post-classical Latin blodwita, blodewita. Compare also post-classical Latin sanguis, lit. ‘blood’, bloodshed, fine for bloodshed.