† bookland Obs. exc. Hist.
Forms: 1 bócland; Antiq. 7 bock-, 8–9 boc-, 9 bok-, bookland.
The Old English name for land taken from the folcland or common land, and granted by bóc or written charter to a private owner; thus, at length, applied to all land that was not folcland. (Hence the common place-name Buckland.)
| a 1000 Laws of Edgar i. 2 (Bosw.) Ðe on his boclande cyricean hæbbe. 1641 Termes de la Ley 42 Bockland, in the Saxons time..was by that name distinguished from Folkland. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Bocland. 1768 Blackstone Comm. II. 90 Book-land, or charter-land. 1860 C. Innes Scotl. Mid. Ages ii. 54 Bocland or Charterland was such as was severed by an act of the government, that is, by the King with the consent of his parliament, from the public land. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. v. 76 As the primitive allotments gradually lost their historical character..the ethel is lost sight of in the bookland. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 368 The man who received a grant of book⁓land on such terms as made it practically as much his own as a primitive eðel. |