Meanings
plural manbotes · plural manboten · alternative manbot
- historicalAnglo-SaxonlawA sum paid to a lord as a pecuniary compensation for killing his vassal, servant, or tenant.
Manbote of freedom
1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, (please specify |part=1 to 4), London2 more examples
Three weeks later an equal sum, under the name of manbote, was paid to the lord, as a compensation for the loss of his vassal.
1688, John Lingard, A History of England1962, H.R. Loyns, quoted in NYT, Daily Lexeme: Maegbot, 2011
Origin
- Old Englishmannbōt“fine paid to the lord of a slain man or vassal”
- Englishmanbote
Learned borrowing from Old English mannbōt (“fine paid to the lord of a slain man or vassal”). More at man, bote.
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
manbote. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manbote
“manbote.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manbote. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “manbote,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/manbote.
Source: manbote on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.