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ALLODIAL, not
held of a superior; used of land. (L.,—Scand.) Englished
from Low Lat. allodialis, an adj. connected with the sb. allodium.
'The writers on this subject define allodium to be every man's own land,
which he possesses merely in his own right, without owing any rent or service to
any superior;' Blackstone, Comment. b. ii. c. 7. α. The word
allodium is 'Merovingian Latin;' Brachet (s.v. alleu). It is also
spelt alaudum, alaudium, alodium, alodum, alodis, and means a free inheritance,
as distinguished from beneficium, a grant for the owner's life-time
only. β. The word appears as alleu in French, which Brachet derives
from O.H.G. alód (see Graff), said to mean 'full ownership;' where
-ód is to be
explained as short for uodil, uodal, or ódhil, a farm, homestead, or piece of
inherited land; = Icel. óðal, a homestead. γ. The prefix
al- does
not mean 'full,' or 'completely,' but is to be accounted for in a different way;
its nearest equivalent in English is the nearly obsolete word eld, signifying
'old age;' and the words whence allodium was composed are really the Icel.
aldr,
old age (E. eld), and óðal, a homestead. δ. This is apparent from
the following note in the 'Addenda' to Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic
Dictionary, p. 777. 'In the Old Norse there is a compound alda-óðal,
a property of ages or held for ages or generations, an ancient allodial
inheritance; "ok ef eigi er leyst innan þriggja vetra, þá verðr sú jörð
honum at alda óðali" = and if it be not released within three years, then
the estate becomes his allodial property, Diplomatarium Norvagicum, i. 129;
"til æfinlegrar eignar ok alda óðals" = for everlasting possession
and allodial tenure, id. iii. 88. Then this phrase became
metaphorical, in the phrase "at alda öðli" = to everlasting
possession, i.e. for ever,' &c. See the whole
passage. The transition from ald’óðal to allodal or
alodal is easy,
and would at once furnish a Low Lat. form allodialis, by confusion with the Lat.
adjectival form in -alis. ε. This suggests, moreoever, that the adj.
allodialis is really older than the sb. allodium, and that the sb. was formed
from the adjective, and not vice versâ. See further on this subject
s.v. Feudal.
B. Having thus arrived at Icel. aldr and óðal as the
primary words, it remains to trace them further back. 1. The Icel.
adlr = E. eld (Shakespeare and Spenser), a sb. from the adj. old; see
Old.
2. The Icel. óðal = A.S. éðel, one's native inheritance or
patrimony, and is from Icel. aðal, nature, disposition, native quality, closely
connected with A.S. æðele, noble (whence Ætheling, a prince), and O.H.G.
adal
(G. adel), noble. The remoter origin of the word is not clear;
see Fick, iii. 14, who compares Gk. ἀταλός, tender, delicate, and
ἀτιτόλλειν, to
tend, cherish. [※]
ERRATA Dele
from beginning of §
γ to the end of the article. The derivation quoted from Vigfusson's
Icel. Dict. cannot well be accepted. The forms alodis, allodis occur
in the Lex Salica, ed. Hessels and Kern; on which Hessels remarks, 'on this word
cf. Monumenta Germaniæ historica, Legg. III. p. 104, 282, 312; Diez, Wörterbuch,
s.v. allodio.' According to Diez, it is from O.H.G. alód, full
ownership.
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