Definition
An obsolete term from old English law denoting a treasurer — a person responsible for the custody and management of a treasury or hoard. The term appears in medieval legal and administrative records to identify an officer charged with keeping funds or valuables. A secondary meaning, noted in Black's, is a cow in calf, though this usage has no traceable legal significance and likely reflects the breadth of Du Cange's glossarial coverage of medieval Latin terms rather than any distinct legal application.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not recorded as a current English word.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not recorded. The root concept survives in the ordinary English word "hoard" — meaning a stored supply or accumulated stockpile — and in "hoarder," one who accumulates and keeps things.
The connection between the legal term and the common word is direct and acknowledged by Bouvier: hordera derives from the same root as "hoard," and the legal officer was precisely one who hoarded — that is, safeguarded — public or institutional funds. Researchers encountering "hoard" or "hoarder" in archaic texts should be alert to whether a custodial or treasury officer is meant rather than mere private accumulation.
Why It Matters in Research
Hordera is a term researchers will encounter almost exclusively in medieval English administrative and ecclesiastical records, Latin legal glossaries, and secondary scholarship drawing on those sources. Its practical research significance is narrow but specific:
First, the term appears in Du Cange's Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, which all four dictionary sources cite as the primary authority. Researchers tracing the term's legal usage should go directly to Du Cange rather than expecting depth from common-law dictionaries, which uniformly defer to that single source.
Second, Bouvier's citation to Leges Athelstani (the laws of King Athelstan, 10th century) provides the only primary legal reference among the dictionary sources. Researchers working in Anglo-Saxon law or early Norman administrative history may find hordera appearing in that context as a recognizable office, analogous to a treasurer or keeper of royal funds.
Third, the adjacent entry in Rapalje & Lawrence — horderium, defined as a hoard, treasury, or repository (citing Cowell's Interpreter) — is the noun form of the same root and may appear alongside hordera in the same source documents. Researchers should treat these as companion terms.
Fourth, the secondary definition (a cow in calf) recorded in Black's first edition is almost certainly a Du Cange lexicographic artifact reflecting the range of medieval Latin usage, not a legal term of art. It should not be treated as a distinct legal meaning and is not repeated in later editions.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in complete agreement on the primary definition: a treasurer. Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Rapalje & Lawrence all compress the entry to a single line, each citing Du Cange as the controlling authority. This unanimity reflects not independent convergence but shared dependence on one glossarial source — a limitation researchers should recognize.
Bouvier alone adds interpretive value, linking hordera etymologically to the Anglo-Saxon concept of hoarding and citing the Leges Athelstani as a primary legal source. This is the most substantive entry among the four and the most useful for researchers needing historical context rather than a bare gloss.
Black's first edition is the only source to record the "cow in calf" meaning, without explanation or authority beyond Du Cange. The second edition drops it entirely, suggesting the editors recognized it as legally irrelevant. Historical dictionaries as a class do not discuss the officer's duties, powers, or institutional context — all of which must be reconstructed from primary sources.
Jurisdictional Note
Hordera is exclusively a term of old English law with no recorded use in American legal practice or statutes. Researchers working in Scottish, Irish, or continental medieval administrative history should not assume the term carried identical meaning across jurisdictions, though treasury-officer cognates appear broadly in medieval European Latin records.