Definition
Felo is the Latin and Law Latin form of the term "felon" — a person who has committed a felony. The term appears in medieval and early modern legal texts as a technical designation for an offender guilty of a capital or otherwise grave crime under the common law felony classification. In operative legal writing, felo functions as a nominal label: it identifies the legal status of an individual as a felon, carrying with it the full weight of felony consequences under historical common law, including forfeiture of lands and goods, attainder, and, in the most serious cases, death.
The term is not used in modern legal practice. It survives exclusively in historical legal sources, principally in Latin-language treatises and writs from the medieval English common law tradition.
Common Confusion
Felo and felon are the same concept in different linguistic registers. Felo is the Latin form used in formal legal texts and pleadings written in Law Latin; felon is its English equivalent. Researchers encountering felo in historical sources should not treat it as a distinct legal category from felon — the terms are interchangeable in substance. Similarly, felo de se (a recognized compound term meaning a person who has killed themselves, literally "a felon of oneself") is a derivative usage and should be understood as a separate, discrete term of art rather than a simple extension of felo.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
The most significant derived form is felo de se — the historical common law designation for a person who committed suicide. This compound carried specific legal consequences distinct from ordinary felony, including forfeiture of personal property to the Crown and denial of ordinary Christian burial rites. It is treated as a separate dictionary entry and should be researched independently.
Why It Matters in Research
Felo matters chiefly as a reading tool, not a research destination. Researchers working in Bracton, Fleta, or other Latin-language common law texts will encounter felo where a modern source would say felon. Misreading felo as a term with independent legal content distinct from felon can cause unnecessary confusion.
Two research traps are worth noting. First, the Latin form may appear in English-language historical sources that mix Latin and vernacular phrasing — a common feature of Year Books and early plea rolls. When it appears mid-sentence in otherwise English text, it is not signaling a technical distinction from felon; it is simply a Latinate usage. Second, the jump from felo to its compound felo de se is easy to miss in index structures. Historical dictionaries that list felo as a headword may cross-reference felon but not always felo de se, which has a significantly different legal profile. Check both entries in any historical source.
Corpus connections: Burrill directs readers to Bracton folio 30 and Fleta, book 1, chapter 28 and book 3, chapter 10. Both are foundational texts for understanding the medieval felony framework. Researchers tracing the conceptual boundaries of felony — what offenses qualified, what consequences attached, how the category was judicially administered — should engage both sources directly rather than relying on dictionary synthesis alone.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides a compact entry: felo is defined simply as "a felon," with citations to Bracton and Fleta. This is consistent with the term's function as a pure Latin nominal form carrying no additional content beyond its English equivalent. Burrill's citations to Bracton folio 30 and Fleta book 1, chapter 28, section 11 and book 3, chapter 10, section 2 point to foundational passages in the medieval treatise tradition where the legal character of the felon — rights forfeited, proceedings available — is worked out in substantive detail.
No historical dictionary in the standard corpus treats felo as a term with legal meaning independent from felon. The entries are uniformly brief and cross-referencing, which accurately reflects the term's status as a Latin variant rather than a distinct legal concept. What historical dictionaries do not provide is a full account of how the felony classification evolved across the medieval and early modern periods — for that, the treatise sources Burrill cites are the more productive starting point.
Jurisdictional Note
Felo in its historical usage is a term of English common law. It does not have a parallel technical usage in civil law or ecclesiastical law systems. Researchers working in Scottish, Continental European, or colonial American legal sources may encounter felon or its local equivalents but are unlikely to encounter felo as a formal term of art in those traditions.