‖ eric Hist.
(ˈɛrɪk)
Forms: 6 eriach, earike, erycke, 7 erick(e, 8– eric.
[Ir. eiric.]
(See quots.)
| 1586 [see earik]. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (1862) 504/2 In the case of Murder..the malefactor shall give unto them [the friends], or to the child, or wife of him that is slain a recompence, which they call an Eriach. 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1747) 111 The killing of an Irishman was..punished..by a fine or pecuniary punishment which is called an Ericke. Ibid. (1787) 126 Your Sheriff..shall be welcome to me, but let me know his erick aforehand. a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 389 All the dead Heaped on the field..Were scarce an eric for his head. 1885 R. Bagwell Irel. under Tudors I. 11 This blood-fine, called an eric, was an utter abomination to the English of the sixteenth century. |
| attrib. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. vi. 170 ‘Eric’-fines or pecuniary compensation for violent crime. |