Definition
Ingome is an archaic or variant spelling of "income." In its legal usage, it denotes the return in money derived from one's business, labor, or capital invested — encompassing gains, profit, and private revenue. The term does not carry a distinct legal meaning separate from income; it appears in older texts and reports as an orthographic variant rather than a term of art.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in historical legal sources, particularly 19th-century Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia materials, may encounter "ingome" as a typographical artifact or period spelling variant of "income." Its appearance in Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental reflects the editorial practice of that era, which occasionally preserved variant spellings found in reported cases rather than standardizing them. A researcher who encounters the term in a digest, index, or transcribed case report should treat it as a direct equivalent to "income" and search accordingly. Do not assume it signals a specialized doctrine or category distinct from income law. The underlying cases cited in the Black's entry — including matters from Pennsylvania and Georgia appellate courts — address ordinary questions of revenue, profit, and taxation under the term "income." Any discrepancy between "ingome" and "income" in a source is almost certainly a transcription or typesetting error, not a substantive distinction.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental is the sole historical dictionary source for this entry. The definition given there — "the return in money from one's business, labor, or capital invested; gains, profit, or private revenue" — tracks the standard 19th-century legal understanding of income without modification. The supporting case citations (Braun's Appeal, 105 Pa. 415; People v. Davenport, 30 Hun (N.Y.) 177; In re Slocum, 169 N.J. 153; Waring v. Savannah, 60 Ga. 99) are standard income-definition authorities from that period and do not use "ingome" as a distinct term of art. No other historical legal dictionary treats "ingome" as an independent entry. The term does not appear in later editions of Black's, confirming that it was absorbed without note into the standard spelling.