deodand


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deodand

(ˈdiːəʊˌdænd)
n
(Law) English law (formerly) a thing that had caused a person's death and was forfeited to the crown for a charitable purpose: abolished 1862
[C16: from Anglo-French deodande, from Medieval Latin deōdandum, from Latin Deō dandum (something) to be given to God, from deus god + dare to give]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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References in periodicals archive ?
deodand, an object (such as a knife, pistol, or runaway carriage)
663, 681 (1974) ("The value of the instrument was forfeited to the King, in the belief that the King would provide the money for Masses to be said for the good of the dead man's soul, or insure that the deodand was put to charitable uses."); OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR., THE COMMON LAW 34 (Law Book Exch., Ltd.
Hecht's The Deodand (a thing to be given to God) describes the women's "strange charade":
deodand, in which offending property was condemned and confiscated by
More Light!" stands out as one of his two most horrifying and despairing poems (the other being a significantly later poem, "The Deodand"), depicting in its second half the sadistic "collaborative" execution of two Jews and a Pole at the hands of the Nazis.
did "deodand" forfeiture of objects causing accidental death);
Early law punishes brutes for the harm they do, and the domestic animal that hurts a human being is deodand. Law now looks farther back, but the public in its short-sightedness is like a stricken animal biting at the arrow in its flank instead of charging on the hunter.
DEODAND: An object that caused a person's death (for example the boat from which a person fell and drowned).
Furthermore, after any type of killing, the coroner took possession of the thing that had actually effected the death, termed the deodand. Be it a knife borrowed by a murderer or a draught horse that had run amok and accidentally trampled a bystander, the deodand forfeited to the crown, ostensibly to be put to pious purposes (a practice not officially abolished until 1846).
Farr severely criticised the laws that existed to prevent accidents after the abolition of the law of deodand, including the Police Act, which imposed a trivial penalty even for accidents involving a fatality.
As Frederic Maitland elegantly puts it in The History of English Law (1898), "many horses and boats bore the guilt which should have been ascribed to beer." Known as "deodand," meaning "a thing given to God" (Deo dandum--that is to be given to God) in recompense for blood casually shed, this early modern ritual remained in practice in England until 1846 when its application to railway engines brought its irrational nature to public notice.