wergeld means blood money, the monetary value assigned to a person, set according to their rank, used to determine the compensation paid by the perpetrator of a crime to the victim in the case of injury or to the victim's kindred in the case of homicide; such a reparative payment or compensation. It carries an Arena rating of 1652, earned across 18 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wergeld ranks #667 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,230 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,236 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,348 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
wergeld is pronounced /ˈwɛəɡɛld/.
Why “wergeld” is a great word
Wergeld is the fixed sum, established by early Germanic law, payable by a killer or their kin to the family of a slain person, its value calibrated precisely to the victim's social standing. It is a learned borrowing from Old English *werġeld*, from *wer* ("man") + *geld* ("payment, compensation"). Unlike a "fine," paid to an authority as a penalty, or the self-perpetuating spiral of a "blood feud," wergeld was the cold calculus of atonement—a tariff for a life designed to stanch the hemorrhage of vengeance. It was the weight of a chieftain measured in gold rings, the price of a freeman in herds of cattle, and the lesser value of a bondsman in tools or cloth, a formal ledger entry where grief was given a number and society rests on the brittle agreement to accept coin for blood.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Old English werġeld, wereġeld (“compensation for a man killed”), from Proto-West Germanic *werageld. More at wer, geld.
noun
- Blood money, the monetary value assigned to a person, set according to their rank, used to determine the compensation paid by the perpetrator of a crime to the victim in the case of injury or to the victim's kindred in the case of homicide; such a reparative payment or compensation.e.g.“The first law we find is one of Æthelbirht's:—"if a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his 'wer-geld,' and provide another wife with his own money, and bring her to the other."” — 1862, John Benjamin Marsden, The Influence of the Mosaic Code Upon Subsequent Legislation, →ISBN:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- bloodwite 70% match — A penalty for committing bloodshed, specifically under Anglo-Saxon law a penalty to be paid to the king or aldorman as distinct from the wergeld. vs wergeld →
- bloodwealth 67% match — Compensation paid by the family of a murderer to the family of the victim. vs wergeld →
- frumgild 65% match — In Anglo-Saxon law, the first payment made to the kindred of a person slain, toward the recompense of his murder. vs wergeld →
- galanas 62% match — the blood money or weregild paid by a murderer to the family of his victim under early Welsh law vs wergeld →
- heregeld 60% match — Danegeld (a tax raised to pay tribute to Vikings in medieval Europe). vs wergeld →
- magbote 60% match — Compensation paid by someone who killed their relative. vs wergeld →
- bote 58% match — Atonement, compensation, amends, satisfaction; as, manbote, a compensation for a man slain. vs wergeld →
- healsfang 56% match — In Anglo-Saxon law, a fine or mulct of uncertain character. vs wergeld →