Hist. Forms: 6 eriach, earike, erycke, 7 erick(e, 8– eric. [Ir. eiric.] (See quots.)
1586. [see EARIK].
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (1862), 504/2. In the case of Murder … the malefactor shall give unto them [the friends], or to the child, or wife of him that is slain a recompence, which they call an Eriach.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1747), 111. The killing of an Irishman was … punished … by a fine or pecuniary punishment, which is called an Ericke. Ibid. (1787), 126. Your Sheriff … shall be welcome to me, but let me know his erick … aforehand.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 389. All the Dead, Heaped on the field … Were scarce an eric for his head.
1885. R. Bagwell, Irel. under Tudors, I. 11. This blood-fine, called an eric, was an utter abomination to the English of the sixteenth century.
attrib. 1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., vi. 170. ‘Eric’-fines or pecuniary compensation for violent crime.
