Definition
An archaic Anglo-Norman French legal term meaning a burial place; a cemetery. The term appears in early English legal and ecclesiastical sources as a variant spelling of what is now rendered "cemetery," derived from the Law French used in medieval English legal texts. It does not carry a distinct legal meaning beyond identifying consecrated or designated ground set apart for the interment of the dead.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An obsolete spelling of "scimitar" — a curved sword associated with Middle Eastern and Central Asian martial traditions.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed as a distinct entry; the common lexical tradition does not connect this spelling to either blade or burial ground in standard English dictionaries of the period.
The gap here is notable. In ordinary English, the spelling "cymeter" (or "cimeter") belongs entirely to the tradition of rendering the word "scimitar" in older texts. In legal and ecclesiastical Latin-French usage, the same or similar letter sequence was applied to burial grounds. A researcher encountering "cymeter" in a historical document must first determine the genre of the source — a legal or church record almost certainly means a cemetery; a literary or military text almost certainly means a sword.
Common Confusion
CYMETER / CYMMORTH: Burrill's entry for "cymeter" immediately precedes his entry for "cymmorth" (an assembly for mutual assistance under Welsh customary law), and the two terms appear together in the same textual neighborhood in old English legal sources. Researchers scanning Burrill or transcribing manuscript material should take care not to conflate these unrelated terms. "Cymeter" concerns place (burial ground); "cymmorth" concerns collective action (assembly or aid).
CYMETER / CEMETERY: These are functionally the same concept, but the spelling "cymeter" is specific to Law French usage and signals a medieval legal or ecclesiastical context. Modern legal and property documents universally use "cemetery." Finding "cymeter" in a source is itself a dating and provenance signal.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily an orthographic and linguistic artifact rather than a term with living legal significance. Its research value is twofold.
First, as a locator term: "cymeter" in a medieval or early modern English legal document — particularly in matters touching on church property, burial rights, mortuary fees, or land tenure — identifies the subject as a burial ground. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over burial grounds was a recurring source of legal dispute in medieval England, implicating questions of mortuary rights, fees for burial, and the boundary between secular and canon law. A researcher tracing such disputes in early sources needs to recognize this spelling variant to retrieve relevant material.
Second, as a transcription trap: Because the common English spelling "cymeter" or "cimeter" referred to a sword, transcribers and indexers working with medieval legal manuscripts have occasionally miscategorized references to burial grounds. If a secondary source or index entry seems anomalous — a sword appearing in a probate, land, or ecclesiastical record — "cymeter" as cemetery is likely the correct reading.
The citation to Britton (c. 43) in Burrill is significant. Britton is a late thirteenth-century treatise on English law, written in Law French, that is a primary source for the legal vocabulary of the period. Researchers working in that corpus should add "cymeter" and variant spellings to their search vocabulary for burial-related topics.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical legal dictionary source presenting this term, and his treatment is minimal: a one-line entry identifying the term as Law French for a burial place, citing Britton chapter 43. No substantive legal doctrine attaches to the entry — Burrill is recording vocabulary, not a rule.
The absence of the term from other major historical legal dictionaries (Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's Law Dictionary, Black's early editions) confirms that "cymeter" was recognized as archaic even by the time the major legal lexicographic projects of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were underway. It survived in Burrill because Burrill cast an unusually wide net for Law French and Anglo-Norman vocabulary drawn directly from primary medieval sources.
Researchers should not expect to find doctrinal content built around this specific term. Its legal significance is absorbed into the broader law of burial grounds, church property, and mortuary rights, which appear in historical sources under "cemetery," "churchyard," "burial," and related headings.