Results for bailiwick
On this page:
 
Dictionary:

bailiwick

  ('lə-wĭk') pronunciation
n.
  1. A person's specific area of interest, skill, or authority. See synonyms at field.
  2. The office or district of a bailiff.

[Middle English bailliwik : baillif, bailiff; see bailiff + wik, town (from Old English wīc, from Latin vīcus; see vicinity).]


 
 
Thesaurus: bailiwick

noun

    A sphere of activity, experience, study, or interest: area, arena, circle, department, domain, field, orbit, province, realm, scene, subject, terrain, territory, world. Slang bag. See territory.

 

[De]

Area under the jurisdiction of a bailiff in medieval times.

 
Obscure Words: bailiwick


[fr. bailiff + ME wik, town]  /BAY leh wik/
1) a person's specific area of interest, skill or authority
2) the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff
 
Wikipedia: bailiwick

A bailiwick is the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff. The term was also applied to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a Crown grant. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of authority, experience, activity, study, or interest.

Jersey coins bear the inscription Bailiwick of Jersey.
Enlarge
Jersey coins bear the inscription Bailiwick of Jersey.

The term originated in France (bailie being the Old French term for a bailiff). Under the ancien régime in France, the bailli was the king's representative in a bailliage, charged with the application of justice and control of the administration. In southern France, the term generally used was sénéchal (cf seneschal) who held office in the sénéchaussée. The administrative network of baillages was established in the 13th century, based on the earlier medieval fiscal and tax divisions (the 'baillie') which had been used by earlier sovereign princes (such as the Duke of Normandy). (For more on this French judicial system, see bailli, prévôt and Early Modern France.)

A bailiwick (German: ballei) was also the territorial division of the Teutonic Order.

In English, the original French bailie was combined with '-wic', the Anglo-Saxon suffix meaning a village, to produce a term meaning literally 'bailiff's village' - the original geographic scope of a bailiwick. In the 19th century, it was absorbed into American English as a metaphor for one's sphere of knowledge or activity.

The term survives in administrative usage in the Channel Islands, which for administrative purposes are grouped into the two bailiwicks of Jersey (comprising the island of Jersey and uninhabited islets such as the Minquiers and Écréhous) and Guernsey (comprising the islands of Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, Brecqhou, Herm, Jethou and Lihou). Each Channel Island bailiwick is headed by a Bailiff.


nrm:Bailliage


 
Translations: Translations for: Bailiwick

Dansk (Danish)
n. - jurisdiktionsområde, hovedinteresse

Nederlands (Dutch)
interessegebied, district van deurwaarder

Français (French)
n. - (Jur) juridiction, circonscription, (US) domaine (de spécialité)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Amtsbezirk eines Bailiffs, Reich, Spezialgebiet

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - περιοχή ή όρια δικαιοδοσίας

Italiano (Italian)
giurisdizione di giudice, competenza

Português (Portuguese)
n. - distrito (m), campo (m) de atividades

Русский (Russian)
сфера интересов

Español (Spanish)
n. - jurisdicción, competencia, bailía

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - område, fögderi

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
执行官之职, 范围

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 執行官之職, 範圍

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 집행관의 관할구

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 領域, 近辺

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مقاطعه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮איזור פקיד בית הדין, שטח מנהל האחוזה, תחום פעילות, תחום התעניינות‬


 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "bailiwick" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bailiwick" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: