Definition
An archaic Old English term meaning to practice crimes requiring concealment or secrecy; specifically, to pilfer or steal articles secretly. In historical English legal usage, "mich" described covert criminal conduct of a petty or pilfering nature. The agent form, "micher," denoted a person who practiced such secret crimes.
In modern usage, the term has no living legal application and survives only in historical legal texts and glossaries.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An abbreviation for Michigan.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To miche — to skulk, to lie hidden, to pilfer; also rendered as "to sneak."
The gap between common and legal meaning here is largely a matter of register and era. The term's common historical meaning (to skulk or hide) and its legal historical meaning (secret pilfering) are closely related but the legal usage sharpens the conduct toward criminal concealment specifically. No modern legal meaning survives.
Common Confusion
"Mich" as an abbreviation for Michigan and "mich" as an archaic crime term are entirely unrelated. Researchers encountering "mich." in older English legal manuscripts or glossaries should not read it as a state abbreviation. Context — particularly the presence of the period and surrounding legal language — is the key differentiator. In American legal sources predating Michigan statehood (1837), any appearance of "mich" in a criminal law context almost certainly refers to the archaic term.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is effectively a dead letter in active legal research but carries specific traps for researchers working in:
— **Early English criminal law manuscripts and abridgments.** "Mich" and its variants appear in pre-modern English legal glossaries and may surface in transcriptions of Old and Middle English legal records. Researchers unfamiliar with the term may misread it as an abbreviation or scribal error.
— **Supplemental and historical Black's Law Dictionary entries.** Black's 2nd Edition Supplemental is the primary vehicle through which this term entered American legal dictionary tradition. Researchers relying on later editions of Black's may not find the entry at all, creating a false impression that the term never had legal recognition.
— **Distinguishing archaic crime vocabulary.** Historical English criminal law contained numerous terms for covert, petty, or nighttime offenses that have no modern statutory equivalents. "Mich" belongs to this cluster alongside terms like "micher," "pilferer," and related vocabulary. Understanding the term in context helps researchers correctly categorize the nature of the offense being described in a historical source.
— **No jurisdictional survival.** There is no known American, English, or Commonwealth jurisdiction in which "mich" functions as a term of art in current law. Researchers should treat any modern appearance as either a historical quotation or a typographical/abbreviation issue.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) is the principal American legal dictionary source for this entry and defines "mich" as "[t]o practice crimes requiring concealment or secrecy; to pilfer articles secretly," attributing the definition in part to Webster. The entry also provides "micher" as the agent noun.
Webster's 1913 corroborates the general sense, rendering "to miche" as to skulk, sneak, or pilfer — grounding the legal usage in a broader common-language tradition of words for furtive or concealed conduct.
No major modern legal dictionary carries this term as a live entry. Its presence in Black's 2nd Edition Supplemental reflects that edition's broader scope in capturing archaic English legal vocabulary, a feature that later streamlined editions largely abandoned. Researchers should not expect to find "mich" defined or discussed in post-20th-century legal reference works without returning to these earlier sources.
Jurisdictional Note
No modern jurisdiction retains "mich" as a statutory or common law term. Its legal relevance is confined to historical English law and to the interpretive task of reading pre-modern English legal texts.