the.com/outlaw
A person the law forgot to protect, so anyone could legally kill them.
means A person who breaks the law and lives outside its protection, often a fugitive from justice; historically, one formally placed beyond the reach of legal rights.
from From Old English ūtlaga, borrowed from Old Norse útlagi — literally 'out-law,' from út ('out') and lög ('law'). In early medieval England, to be 'outlawed' was a real legal sentence: the court declared you útan laga, 'outside the law,' which meant the law would no longer shield you. Your property could be seized, and — chillingly — killing you was no crime, since you no longer counted as a protected person. The romantic gunslinger sense came much later; the word began as a sentence of legal abandonment.
- original meaning
- Declared beyond legal protection, fair game to all
- medieval status
- Outlawry was a punishment worse than prison
- robin hood
- Folk hero invented partly from outlaw legend
- property loss
- Outlaws forfeited everything to the crown
- word origin
- From Old Norse, meaning outside the law
jesse james — missouri guerrilla who robbed trains and banks, killed 1866-1882
butch cassidy — wyoming bank robber and wild bunch gang leader, 1890s-1906
billy the kid — new mexico outlaw who killed 21 men before execution in 1881
ned kelly — australian bushranger who robbed banks in victoria, hanged 1880