LAN

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

LANAuthored
The Law Mind • 766 words
Definition
Lan is an archaic legal term appearing in early English law sources, used in the context of forfeitures and monetary penalties. Its precise meaning is bound up with the Anglo-Saxon and early Norman systems of fixed monetary exactions. In the sources where it appears, lan is encountered alongside related terms such as ore and pound sterling, suggesting it functioned as a unit of account or measure within the old English penalty and forfeiture system. The term does not carry an independent modern legal meaning and survives only as a historical curiosity in glossaries and annotated editions of early English legal compilations.
Common Language
Wiktionary (modern common usage): A county of Lüliang, Shanxi, China — a proper geographic noun with no legal resonance. Webster's 1913: Not independently defined as a legal term; the word in common English use is primarily a proper noun or dialectal variant. The gap between any common usage and the legal usage is complete: the legal term lan belongs entirely to the specialized vocabulary of pre-Conquest and early post-Conquest English law and has no meaningful connection to the geographic or common English uses of the word.
Common Confusion
Lan should not be confused with lagamannus or lagemannus, which appear in close proximity in Burrill and share the same archaic English legal context. Lagamannus denotes a law-man or lawful man — a person of legal standing — and is a status term, not a monetary or penalty term. The proximity of these entries in Burrill can cause researchers scanning the page to conflate them.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Burrill or consulting editions of Leges Gulielmi Conquestoris and Fortescue's De Laudibus Legum Angliae will encounter lan embedded in discussions of forfeiture schedules. The critical research trap is that Burrill's entry does not define lan independently but instead cross-references it to forfeiture, noting that the meaning of the word is discussed there, alongside references to the ore (a monetary unit of account in Scandinavian-influenced English law) and the pound sterling. Researchers must follow that cross-reference rather than treating the standalone entry as self-sufficient. Because lan appears in the stratum of Anglo-Saxon and Danelaw legal vocabulary — a layer of law that used units like the ore, the mark, and the pound in ways that shifted across time and region — its precise value or meaning in any given document will depend on the dating and provenance of the source. Do not assume consistency across documents: the same term could carry different quantitative weight in a West Saxon versus a Danelaw context. Corpus connections: Researchers encountering lan should also examine Burrill's entries for lagamannus, lagemannus, and laga, which appear in close proximity and reflect the same stratum of Scandinavian-inflected Old English legal vocabulary. These terms together map the social and administrative framework within which monetary forfeitures like lan operated.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary source for lan in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill's handling is characteristic of his approach to archaic Anglo-Saxon and Norman terms: he flags the word, notes where its meaning is authoritatively treated (here, Leges Gulielmi Conquestoris and Fortescue's 1737 edition), and directs the reader elsewhere rather than attempting a freestanding definition. This is editorially honest but practically frustrating for researchers who do not have those sources at hand. The specific reference to twelve ores or one pound sterling as the measure of a forfeiture provides the only concrete content Burrill supplies. This equates lan with a penalty sum, placing it in the same functional category as bot and wite in Anglo-Saxon penalty law — terms that designated fixed compensatory or punitive payments owed for specific wrongs. No other Law Mind shelf source independently defines lan. Spelman's Glossarium (cited by Burrill in the adjacent lagamannus entry) would be the natural comparator source for this class of term, but its treatment of lan specifically is not available in the present corpus. Researchers needing authoritative treatment should consult Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum and the scholarly apparatus of modern editions of the Leges Gulielmi.
Related Terms
Lagamannus — lawful man; appears in adjacent Burrill entry and shares the same source stratum Lagemannus — variant form of lagamannus Laga — the root from which lagamannus derives; Scandinavian-origin term for law Ore — unit of monetary account in early English law; directly referenced in the lan forfeiture measure Bot — compensatory payment in Anglo-Saxon penalty law Wite — punitive fine in Anglo-Saxon penalty law Forfeiture — the parent concept under which Burrill treats lan's meaning at length
LANmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870
(127) meaning of this word is discussed at much forfeiture, which was twelve ores or one length in the preface to the translation of pound sterling. LL. Gul. Cong. 1. 41, and Fortescue de L. L. Angliæ, (ed. 1737,) p. xix. et seq. LAGAMANNUS, Lagemannus. L. Lat. [from laga, (q. v.) and man.] In old English law. A law-man or lage-man; a lawful man, (legalis homo.) Spelman. Domesday, cited ibid. See Lahman. (128) gally includes also all houses and other buildings built upon it; or, in still more general terms, it includes not only the face of the earth, but every thing under it or over it. Id. ibid. 2 Bl. Com. 17, 18. Shep. Touch. 90. 1 Chitt. Gen. Pr. 179, 180. 1 Crabb's Real Prop. 66, 67, § 86. 3 Kent's Com. 401. See Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad cælum. In fines, land denoted arable land, only. Shep. Touch. (by Preston,) 13.1 Chitt. Gen. Pr. 179, 180. In wills, "land" is construed in its largest sense. 1 Crabb's Real Prop. 67, § 86. 2 Powell on Devises, (by Jarman,) 186. It has sometimes, however, been confined to mean arable land. Cro. Eliz. 476. See 1 Jarman on Wills, 706, 707, (604, 605, Perkins' ed.) In American law, the common law definition of land has been adopted, with some modifications introduced by statute. 3 Kent's Com. 401. 1 Hilliard's Real Prop. 51. 2 Id. 339. See Id. 50. 1 N.Y. Rev. St. [387,] 379, § 1. Id. [750,] 741, § 10. The word land includes not only the soil, but every thing attached to it, whether attached by the course of nature, as trees, herbage, and water, or by the hand of man, as buildings and fences. Bronson, J. 1 Comstock's R. 572. "LANDS," in the plural, is, at common law, a less extensive term of description than "tenements and hereditaments." In American law, however, it is sometimes made by statute to include both the latter terms. Rev. Stat. Mass. c. 61, § 32. 1 N. Y. Rev. St. [750,] 741, § 10.
Lanname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A county of Lüliang, Shanxi, China.
LANnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Acronym of local area network.

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