Fine
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
Family (Fine) · fine · fines
in the texts
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions
The Irish legal term applied uniformly to kin groupings from the Tribe down to the Family.
The first instructive fact which strikes us on the threshold of the Brehon law is, that the same word, ‘Fine,’ or Family, is applied to all the subdivisions of Irish society.
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
A voluntary payment offered to the King to obtain favour or escape punishment, contrasted sharply with the compulsory amercement.
This distinction between fines and amercements, absolute in theory, could readily be obliterated in practice.
With the gradual elimination of the voluntary element the word “fine” came to bear its modern meaning, while “amercement” dropped out of ordinary use.