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borgfred... [untranslatable Scandinavian term - roughly "parliamentary peace"]

Germanic. It's Burgfrieden in German, original meaning: peace among individuals enforced inside and under the 'jurisdiction' of a castle. I guess this must have existed in English as well, but maybe died out of use for lack of 19th century or WWI-era re-use; afew?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Fri Oct 16th, 2009 at 06:52:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Old English for borg/burg is burg (modern Eng "borough").

There are heaps of compounds with this, among which

burgfolc townsfolk
burggemót town meeting (moot)
burgwaran/s burghers

The equivalent of fred/fried was frið, but this one went out of use, replaced by the French borrowing "peace", some time in the Middle English period.

I can't find an example of burgfrið.

OTOH, there are also lots of OE frið compounds, of which the prettiest is friðcandel: "peace candle" -- the sun.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Oct 16th, 2009 at 09:02:03 AM EST
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