Etymology

bailiff

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Today it means: A reeve, (specifically) the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period. Full definition →

Middle English baillif ← Old French bailif ← Vulgar Latin *bāiulivus
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bailiff · noun1

  1. Dutch · semantic loan frombaljuw
  2. Scots · semantic loan frombailie
  3. French · semantic loan frombailli
  4. Latin · derived frombāiulus“porter; steward”
  5. Vulgar Latin · derived from*bāiulivus“castellan”
  6. Old French · derived frombailif
  7. Middle English · inherited frombaillif
  8. English todaybailiff

From Middle English baillif, baylyf, from Anglo-Norman and Old French bailif (plural bailis), probably from Vulgar Latin *bāiulivus (“castellan”), from Latin bāiulus (“porter; steward”), whence also bail. As a translation of foreign titles, semantic loan from French bailli, Scots bailie, Dutch baljuw, etc. Mostly replaced the role of native reeve. Doublet of bailo.

Bailiff · proper noun2

Occupational surname, from bailiff.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.