Wergild
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
or WEREGILD.
In old English law
The price which, in a barbarous age, a person guilty of homicide or other enormous offense was required to pay, instead of receiving other punishment.
4 Bl. Comm. 188.
See, for the etymology of this word, and a tariff which was paid for the murder of the different classes of men, Guizot, Essais sur l'Histoire de France, Essai, 4eme, c.
2, § 2.