Obs. Law. Also 3 (in MSS.) cuthutlage, cuth vtlaghe, kuthutlaghe. [app. an early ME. repr. of an OE. cúþ útlaʓa known outlaw.] A term applied, according to Bracton, to a person knowingly harboring or concealing an outlaw; or perhaps, more properly, to the offence of doing so.
c. 1250. Bracton, III. II. xiii. (Rolls), II. 336. Talem [exulem] vocant Anglici utlaughe … [Utlagatus] aut potest esse notus et cognitus vel ignotus et incognitus; et unde qui notum et cognitum receptaverit pari pœna puniendus est, qui dicitur Couthutlaughe [MSS. v.rr.: see above].
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Coutheutlaughe is he that willingly receiveth a man outlawed … and hideth him. [Hence 1641 in Termes de la Ley, 1656 Blount, and later Dicts.]
[Known only in loc. cit.; the OE. term represented is not recorded. It is not easy to comprehend that the term ‘known outlaw’ could originally designate the harborer; prob. the word is the fragment of a phrase designating the harboring of a known outlaw; it has been suggested that the meaning might be ‘acquaintance or familiar of an outlaw,’ but this would be in OE. útlaʓan cúþa, or perh. cúþa útlaʓan.]
