| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bylaw |
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| SYLLABICATION: | by·law |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b  lô |
| NOUN: | 1. A law or rule governing the internal affairs of an organization. 2. A secondary law. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bilawe, body of local regulations; akin to Danish by-lag, township ordinance : Old Norse b r, settlement; see bheu - in Appendix I + Old Norse *lagu, law; see legh- in Appendix I. | | WORD HISTORY: | A casual glance at the word bylaw might make one think that the element by– means “secondary, subsidiary,” especially since bylaw can mean “a secondary law.” It is possible that by–, as in byway, has influenced bylaw in the sense “secondary law”; however, bylaw existed long before the sense in question. The word is first recorded in 1283 with the meaning “a body of customs or regulations, as of a village, manor, religious organization, or sect.” By– comes from Old Norse (as may the whole word bylaw) and is related to the element –by in the names of many places where Scandinavians settled when they invaded England during the early Middle Ages, such as Whitby. We get the sense of this –by if we compare the related Old Icelandic word variously spelled bær, bœr, br, meaning “a town or village” in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and “a farm or landed estate” in Iceland. We thus see why bylaw would mean “a body of customs of a village or manor” and why we use the word to mean “a law or rule governing the internal affairs of an organization.”
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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