Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning to fence in or enclose land. "Empaler" (also rendered as "empalement") referred to the act of enclosing or paling off a parcel of land, typically by erecting a fence, palisade, or similar boundary structure. The term belongs to the vocabulary of early English land law and appears in records concerning enclosure, trespass, and the physical demarcation of real property.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Obsolete form of "impaler" — one who impales, i.e., pierces or transfixes with a sharp stake.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; derived from "impale," meaning to pierce with a pale or stake, or to fence with pales.
The gap here is significant and potentially misleading. A modern reader encountering "empaler" in a historical legal text will almost certainly read it as a reference to the violent act of piercing with a stake. In its legal context, however, the term carries no violent connotation whatsoever — it describes the peaceful, proprietary act of enclosing land with pales or fencing. The confusion arises because both meanings derive from the same root word "pale" (a fence stake), but diverged entirely in application.
Common Confusion
"Empaler" and "impale" share etymology but are functionally unrelated in their legal and common usages respectively. Researchers encountering this term in Year Books, plea rolls, or early English reports must resist the modern association with impalement as a form of violence or execution. The legal term is concerned exclusively with land enclosure. Additionally, "empaler" should not be confused with the heraldic term "impalement" (the division of a shield to display two coats of arms), which is a distinct usage also derived from the same root.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a genuine trap for researchers working in medieval and early modern English legal records. Its appearance in Year Book citations (Burrill references Keilwey 30) signals a land dispute context — likely trespass, nuisance, or questions about the lawfulness of an enclosure. Researchers who do not recognize the term's meaning may misread the nature of the legal action entirely.
The term belongs to a cluster of Law French enclosure vocabulary that also includes related concepts of "paling," "enclosure," and actions for breaking down fences or bounds. It surfaces most commonly in records from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, when enclosure disputes were politically and legally charged.
Because the term is rare and highly archaic, it will not appear in most standard modern legal dictionaries or indexes. Researchers working with digitized historical corpora should search variant spellings: "empaler," "empalement," "empallement," and the anglicized "impalement" (in the land sense). Full-text searching alone without awareness of this term will cause it to be overlooked or miscategorized.
The Keilwey citation (Keilwey's Reports, a collection of Year Book-style reports from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries) is a useful anchor for contextualizing where this term appears in the primary source record.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole entry among the shelf sources: "L. Fr. To fence in. Empalement; a fencing in. Keilw. 30, pl. 2." This entry is minimal but precise. Burrill correctly identifies the Law French origin and the core meaning, and provides a specific citation to Keilwey as authority.
No other major historical legal dictionaries in common research use — including Bouvier, Black's early editions, or Jacob's Law Dictionary — appear to have given this term a standalone entry, which itself indicates how narrow and period-specific its usage was. The absence from Bouvier and Black is notable: by the time those dictionaries were compiled, the term had effectively passed out of active legal use and was already an antiquarianism even among legal professionals.
Burrill's treatment, though brief, is reliable. Researchers should treat this as a terminal citation — the trail begins and effectively ends with Burrill and the Keilwey reference for standard dictionary support.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to English legal history and its derivative common law jurisdictions. It has no independent life in American, Scottish, or civil law traditions. Researchers working in English historical records prior to approximately 1600 are the primary audience for this entry.