Definition
A Latin term from feudal law meaning to cuckold — that is, to commit adultery with another man's wife, thereby rendering the husband a cuckold. The term appears in feudal legal texts in the context of offenses that could affect feudal relationships, obligations, or standing. It is not a term of modern legal practice and survives primarily as a historical artifact in feudal Latin sources.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this term will find it almost exclusively in feudal Latin compilations, particularly the Libri Feudorum (the medieval compilation of Lombard feudal custom), where it appears in discussions of wrongs affecting the honor and status of feudal persons. Because feudal law tied personal honor closely to legal standing — affecting rights of inheritance, tenure, and the lord-vassal relationship — sexual offenses against a man's household were not merely moral matters but could carry legal consequences within the feudal structure.
The term is a trap for researchers unfamiliar with feudal Latin: the root suggests no obvious legal meaning to a modern reader, and without reference to a specialized feudal or medieval law dictionary, it would be opaque in context. Burrill preserves it with citations to the Libri Feudorum (Lib. 1, tit. 5 and Lib. 2, tit. 38), which are the appropriate primary sources for any deeper investigation. Researchers working in medieval legal history, ecclesiastical law, or the history of marital and family law may encounter adjacent treatments of the same underlying conduct under different terminology — adultery, stuprum, or violation of the peace of the household — depending on the source's jurisdiction and period.
Note also that Burrill places the entry immediately adjacent to CUENS (count or earl), which is a reminder that feudal law dictionaries are organized alphabetically by Latin form and that neighboring entries are not necessarily related in subject matter.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole shelf source to record this term, and its treatment is brief: a Latin gloss, a subject-matter tag (feudal law), a one-line definition (to cuckold; to make a cuckold), and two citations to the Libri Feudorum. No other historical dictionary in the Law Mind corpus appears to carry the term.
The citation to the Libri Feudorum is credible — that compilation does address personal wrongs affecting feudal tenants and their households — but researchers should be aware that Burrill does not explain the legal consequences that attached to the act, only that the term appears in those titles. What sanction or remedy followed, and against whom, would require direct consultation of the Libri Feudorum and its commentators.
No common law counterpart exists for this specific term. English law addressed the underlying conduct through the law of criminal conversation (crim. con.), an action at common law allowing a husband to sue his wife's paramour for damages, but that doctrine developed independently and under entirely different nomenclature.
Jurisdictional Note
This term belongs exclusively to the Lombard feudal law tradition as codified in the Libri Feudorum, which was most influential in continental European legal systems. It has no recognized role in English common law or any modern legal system.