botleas
English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Old English bōtlēas (“unpardonable”). Doublet of bootless.
Adjective
botleas (not comparable)
- (Anglo-Saxon England, law, of a crime) Too grievous to be atoned for by the payment of a bōt or bōte; irredeemable, unpardonable.
- 1991, Carla Ann Hage Johnson, “Entitled to Clemency: Mercy in the Criminal Law” in Law and Philosophy X, № 1 (February 1991), page 112:
- Persons guilty of the botleas crimes had no right to any particular punishment. Thus the convicted could not “complain if a foot was taken instead of his eyes, or if he was hanged instead of beheaded”.
- 1991, Carla Ann Hage Johnson, “Entitled to Clemency: Mercy in the Criminal Law” in Law and Philosophy X, № 1 (February 1991), page 112:
Anagrams
Old English
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
bōtlēas
- bootless, unpardonable, what cannot be redeemed, recompensed or expiated by the payment of boot
Declension
Declension of bōtlēas — Strong
Declension of bōtlēas — Weak
Descendants
- Middle English: boteles, botles, botelees, booteles, botelesse, bootles, butelesse
- English: bootless
- → English: botleas
References
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “bótleás”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Old English
- English learned borrowings from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:Law
- Old English terms suffixed with -leas
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English adjectives