lawspeaker
lawspeaker noun: an official in Scandinavia whose duties included memorizing laws as well as presiding over, and reciting the laws at, regional Things or the Althing.
Noun
lawspeaker (plural lawspeakers)
- An official in Scandinavia whose duties included memorizing laws as well as presiding over, and reciting the laws at, regional Things or the Althing.
- In every legal district there is a lawspeaker, and he has the greatest power among the farmers, because whatever he decides to be the law stands.[…]But whenever there is a conflict in their laws, then the Uppsala laws prevail; and all the other lawspeakers have a lower rank than the one who...1964, Snorri Sturluson, translated by Lee M. Hollander, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, Paperback edition, University of Texas Press, published 2009, page 316
- The lawspeaker was the president of the Althing. […] Except for the hallowing ceremony, the lawspeaker was in charge of all the affairs of the Althing.1974, Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Islendinga Saga, University of Manitoba Press, 2006, Reprint, page 48
- Synonyms:
- lawman
Synonyms of lawspeaker
Forms of lawspeaker
| plural | lawspeakers |
|---|
Origin of lawspeaker
From law + speaker; compare lawman.
Questions about lawspeaker
- What does lawspeaker mean?
- Lawspeaker means an official in Scandinavia whose duties included memorizing laws as well as presiding over, and reciting the laws at, regional Things or the Althing.
- What part of speech is lawspeaker?
- Lawspeaker is a noun.
- What is the plural of lawspeaker?
- The plural of lawspeaker is lawspeakers.
Words near lawspeaker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lawspeaker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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