Outlaw

Outlaw

Noun / Verb · /ˈaʊt.lɔː/

Definition

(Noun) a person who has been declared outside the protection of the law; a person who lives by breaking the law; a habitual criminal or bandit operating outside the law; (Verb) to prohibit something by law; to declare something illegal; to declare a person an outlaw.

Origin

From Old Norse útlagi (an outlaw — one placed outside the law: út, out, and lög, law) — possibly via Old English ūtlaga. One of the clearest Norse loanwords in English law vocabulary, reflecting the Norse legal concept of outlawry — the formal legal process by which a person was expelled from the protection of the law, becoming, in effect, a non-person whom anyone could harm without legal consequence. Outlawry being a formal judicial sentence in English and Norse law from the early medieval period — the outlaw having no legal rights, being unable to sue or seek protection, and being liable to be killed by anyone with impunity. The practice of legal outlawry being abolished in England in 1938.