Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "to cut." Found in early Norman legal texts and glossaries, COLPER appears in the context of medieval English law derived from the Norman French legal tradition. It does not carry an independent substantive legal definition in modern law and survives only as a historical curiosity in Old French legal vocabulary.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering COLPER in original medieval sources or early English legal texts should understand it as a verb of action — "to cut" — rather than as a term of art carrying technical legal significance in the way that many Law French survivals do. Its appearance in the Leges Gulielmi Conquestoris (the Laws of William the Conqueror) signals that the context is likely penal or physical — references to bodily punishment, destruction of property, or the severing of rights or objects were common in early Norman-era legal codes. Researchers working with Norman legal sources should not confuse this term for a noun denoting a person or office; it is a verb. Because Law French terms were frequently anglicized, abbreviated, or corrupted in manuscript transmission, variant spellings may appear in transcriptions of early rolls and writs.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the entirety of the recorded historical legal definition: "L. Fr. To cut. LL. Gul. Cong. 1. 13." This citation refers to the Leges Gulielmi Conquestoris, a compilation of laws attributed to William the Conqueror, though modern scholarship regards these compilations as later redactions rather than direct royal legislation. Burrill offers no further gloss, which itself is instructive — the term carried no contested meaning, no technical elaboration, and apparently required no further explanation for nineteenth-century legal readers familiar with Law French roots. No other historical dictionary in the standard legal reference shelf independently defines this term, making Burrill the sole authority of record.