outfangthief
/ˈaʊtfaŋθiːf/
outfangthief means A privilege of some feudal lords permitting them to execute summary judgment upon thieves (particularly their own tenants) captured outside their estates and to keep any chattels forfeited upon conviction. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
outfangthief is pronounced /ˈaʊtfaŋθiːf/.
Why “outfangthief” is a great word
OUTFANGTHIEF — [Noun] A feudal privilege granting a lord the right to prosecute a thief captured outside his own manor. Formed within English by compounding, from the prefix out- (meaning "outside"), the verb fang (an archaic term meaning "to seize or catch"), and thief; modeled after the older term infangthief, with its only Old English attestation being a 12th-century forgery. Unlike infangthief, which secures jurisdiction for a thief caught within the lord's own boundaries, or soc, a broad territorial right over petty pleas, outfangthief is a single, covetous claw of power. It is the dusty warrant unrolled at a county line, the snapped shackle on a stranger's road, and the meticulous ledger entry that converts a fugitive and his chattels into manorial profit—a relic of law where possession was not nine-tenths, but the whole of justice.
Etymology
From out- + fang + thief, formed—probably in Middle English [Term?]—after the model of infangthief, with the only Old English [Term?] attestation a spurious charter forged in the 1st half of the 12th century.
noun
- A privilege of some feudal lords permitting them to execute summary judgment upon thieves (particularly their own tenants) captured outside their estates and to keep any chattels forfeited upon conviction.“A grant of outfangthief imports the trial of those of his fee taken for felony in another precinct.”
- A privilege of some feudal lords permitting them to execute summary judgment upon all thieves captured within their estates, regardless of their origin.“But feudalism also contained another principle, and that was, that within his own territory each lord was absolute; his suzerain could not interfere with his jurisdiction; infangthief and outfangthief implied a very perfect and intelligible power of hanging and imprisoning as he pleased.”
- A thief so captured and tried.