law

Etymology 1

From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”). Replaced Old English ǣ and ġesetnes. More at lay. Not related to legal, nor to French loi, Spanish ley, all of which ultimately derive from Latin lēx, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).

noun

1. (usually with "the") The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities.
   1. The body of such rules that pertain to a particular topic.
      property law
      commercial hunting and fishing law
   2. Common law, as contrasted with equity.
2. A binding regulation or custom established in a community in this way.
   There is a law against importing wallabies.
   A new law forbids driving on that road.
   The court ruled that the executive order was not law and nullified it.
3. (more generally) A rule">rule, such as:
   1. Any rule">rule that must or should be obeyed, concerning behaviours and their consequences. (Compare mores.)
      "Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you" is a good law to follow.
      the law of self-preservation
   2. A rule">rule or principle regarding the construction of language or art.
      the laws of playwriting and poetry
      The normal pronoun to use with "spirit" would be "it." But Jesus breaks the law of grammar and says not "when it," but "when he." 1997, Derek Prince, If you Want God's Best
   3. A statement (in physics, etc) of an (observed, established) order or sequence or relationship of phenomena which is invariable under certain conditions. (Compare theory.)
      Observing pi is easier than studying physical phenomena, because you can prove things in mathematics, whereas you can't prove anything in physics. And, unfortunately, the laws of physics change once every generation. March 2 1992, Richard Preston, “The Mountains of Pi”, in The New Yorker
      the laws of thermodynamics
      Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
      This is one of several laws derived from his general theory expounded in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
   4. (mathematics, logic) A statement (of relation) that is true under specified conditions; a mathematical or logical rule">rule.
      Mathematical laws can be proved purely through mathematics, without scientific experimentation.
   5. Any statement of the relation of acts and conditions to their consequences.
      the law of scarcity
      the law of supply and demand
   6. (linguistics) A sound law; a regular change in the pronunciation of a language.
      Grimm's law
      Dahl's law
   7. (cricket) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the its (former) governing body, the MCC.
4. The control and order brought about by the observance of such rules.
   They worked to maintain law and order.
   It was a territory without law, marked by violence.
5. (informal) A person or group that act(s) with authority to uphold such rules and order (for example, one or more police officers).
   Here comes the law — run!
   then the law arrived on the scene
   That was Joe's first confrontation with "The Law" / Naturally, we were easy on him / One of our friendly counsellors gave him a donut / And told him to stick closer / To church-oriented social activities 1979, Frank Zappa (lyrics and music), “Joe's Garage”
6. The profession that deals with such rules (as lawyers, judges, police officers, etc).
   He is studying for a career in law.
   She has practiced law in New York for twenty years.
7. Jurisprudence, the field of knowledge which encompasses these rules.
   She went to university to study law.
8. Litigation; legal action (as a means of maintaining or restoring order, redressing wrongs, etc).
   They were quick to go to law.
9. (now uncommon) An allowance of distance or time (a head start) given to a weaker (human or animal) competitor in a race, to make the race more fair.
   After a few minutes' waiting, two well-known runners, chosen for the hares, buckled on the four bags filled with scent, compared their watches with those of young Brooke and Thome, and started off at a long, slinging trot across the fields in the direction of Barby. Then the hounds clustered round Thome, who explained shortly, "They're to have six minutes' law." 1889, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, page 150
10. (aviation) A mode of operation of the flight controls of a fly-by-wire aircraft.
    normal law; alternate law; direct law
11. (fantasy) One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos.
12. (law, chiefly historical) An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. (Chiefly in the phrases "wager of law", "wage one's law", "perform one's law", "lose one's law".)
    As to the depriving the defendant of waging his law, it was thought, the practice merited discouragement, as a temptation to perjury. 1793, Richard Wooddeson, A Systematical View of the Laws of England, page 169
    But, before the defendant takes the oath, the plaintiff is called by the crier thrice; and if he do not appear he becomes nonsuited, and then the defendant goes quit without taking his oath; and if he appear, and the defendant swear that he owes the plaintiff nothing, and the compurgators give it upon oath, that they believe he swears true, the plaintiff is barred for ever; for when a person has waged his law, it is as much as if a verdict had passed against the plaintiff; if the plaintiff do not appear to hear the defendant perform his law, so that he is nonsuit, he is not barred, but may bring a new action. 1846, Matthew Bacon, Sir Henry Gwilliam, Charles Edward Dodd, A New Abridgment of the Law with Large Additions and Corrections
    A withdrawal from a wager of law was an admission of the point as to which the law was waged; the defaulter also incurred a fine (i, 297). 2013, William Paley Baildon, Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield: Volume 2, 1297 to 1309, page ix

verb

1. (obsolete) To work as a lawyer; to practice law.
   That was in 1877 you were lawing with Herdick? 1889, New York (State). Court of Appeals, New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs, page 71
   J. H. Turner is married and lawing in Milwaukee. 1897, The Scroll of Phi Delta Theta - Volume 21, page 210
   The American Bar Association ruefully admits that the legal profession is overcrowded, especially in large cities. It has a committee studying the situation. Last week an editorial in the New York Law Journal urged a youthful revolt against the city, twanged an idyll of lawing in the country. 1923, Briton Hadden, Time - Volume 29, page 59
2. (transitive, intransitive, chiefly dialectal) To prosecute or sue (someone), to litigate.
   Your husband's … so given to lawing, they say. I doubt he'll leave you poorly off when he dies. 1860, George Eliot (Mary Anne Lewes), The Mill on the Floss
   "I like folks to be up and down and square," she began saying, as she vigilantly watched the effect of her culinary skill upon the awed little party. "Yes, I've got a regular hotel license; you bet I have. There's been folks lawed in this town for sellin' a meal of victuals and not having one." 1886, Charles Dudley Warner, Their Pilgrimage, page 144
   “So I said to her, 'Well, no man ever made anything lawing with his wife, so, if your mind is set on having a divorce and the children you will want plenty to raise them with,' so I deed her the farm in Sumner county and everything on it—horses, mules, machinery, everything.” 2014, Joseph Andrew Orser, The Lives of Chang and Eng: Siam's Twins in Nineteenth-Century America
3. (nonstandard) To rule over (with a certain effect) by law; to govern.
   At its 1933 session, the Kansas legislature provided for funding outstanding bills and floating debts of those cities which could not make payment by a fixed date. By this stroke of its imagination, the legislature lawed all Kansas cities onto a "cash" basis and admonished them to stay there. 1939, Henry Green Hodges, City management: theory and practice of municipal administration
   Earth lies in the chorus of the stars' congregation in the lawed line of their movement, in the balanced rotation of their light, bound by that lawed line, conceived in the focus of that turning; a vessel fashioned on the wheel of endless time. 1969, Aryan Path - Volume 40, page 338
   Nicholas Downton (February 1615) says of the people of Surat: "a mixt people, quiet, peaceable, very subtle; civil, and universally governed under one King, but diversely lawed and customed". 1979, Gokhale, Surat In The Seventeenth Century, page 27
   So that, when GOD said, “Let there be light:” Behold the first created light burst out unto its glory (here GOD lawed the power of heat, fire, light, melting, cooling, and freezing) 2007, Henry Grenryk Ledesma, The Little Book: The Sound of the Seventh Trumpet, page 38
   Beyond the ocher and yellow-washed buildings, French colonial with a suggestion of Beau Geste from the castellated balconies, it is an arm-grabbing, loosely lawed bazaar of a place. 2011, Brian Freemantle, The Iron Cage
4. (informal) To enforce the law.
   De gram jury lawed me all de time an' dat place got too hot. 1918, Eldred Kurtz Means, E.K. Means, page 50
   The only time I ever got lawed [arrested] was for the union. Happened three times. 1972, Bill Peterson, Coaltown revisited: an Appalachian notebook, page 28
   So we're on the road with the micks, maybe a mile from the precinct, and Reedy just pulls over, takes them out onto the Commons, takes off the cuffs, and we knock about twenty pounds of shit out of them.” Petey sensed the agent watching him talk and tried to explain it all another way. “What I mean is, lawing used to be pretty damn pure. 2008, Ron McLarty, Art in America: A Novel
   The sheriff jabbed his thumb at his chest. "I run this shebang. Been doing so for forty-six years. You think you can come in here and preach lawing to me? 2013, J B Bergstad, Hyde's Corner - Book II - In The Name of Vengeance
5. To subject to legal restrictions.
   Insurance may fairly be said to head the list of objects of legislative interference. It has been lawed and lawed until it is nearly outlawed, and the cry for more continues to go up unsatisfied 1895, The Chronicle - Volumes 55-56, page 125
   No man knew what his water rights were until they had been lawed over, and lawed over, and lawed over again. 1914, California Outlook - Volume 16, page lxx
   It has been truly said that we are lawed into existence and lawed through life and lawed out of it more than any other nation 1920, Weight and Measure, page 34
   She knows what's tethered underwater. Not Children's bodies, but their toys, their lost, Lawed-against pleasures 1994, Lisa Lewis, The Unbeliever, page 58

Etymology 2

From Middle English lawe, from Old English hlāw (“burial mound”). Also spelled low.

noun

1. (obsolete) A tumulus of stones.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, archaic) A hill.

Etymology 3

From Middle English lagh, from Old Norse lag (“that which is lying or laid, position, price, way, sting, blow”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid”). Cognate with Scots lauch (“one's tavern-reckoning or one's share of the cost, a score; a payment for drink or entertainment”), Middle English lai (“one's share of expenses, one's bill or account”).

noun

1. (dialectal or obsolete) A score; share of expense; legal charge.

Etymology 4

Compare la and Lawd.

intj

1. (dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.
   ‘Do tell me once for all, whether you intend to marry Mr Watts or not?’ ‘Law Mama, how can I tell you what I don't know myself?’ 1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘The Three Sisters’, Juvenilia