abigeus

Borrowing from Latin abigeus.

abigeus (plural abigei)

1. (law, UK, obsolete) A thief who steals livestock in large quantities.
   • 1730, Institutions of the Criminal Law of Scotland, page 127:

     In the Civil Law, he was accounted an Abigeus who carried off one Horse or one Ox, or four Swine or ten Sheep; if he took a smaller Number of Swine or Sheep, he was reckoned a Fur rather than an Abigeus.

   • 1883, A history of the criminal law of England - Volume 1, page 27:

     The stealing of a single horse or ox might make a man an abigeus, but it seems that the crime could not be committed on less than four pigs or ten sheep.

   • 1943, Seminar: Annual Extraordinary Number of The Jurist:

     It is obvious why the thief of only one domestic animal was not treated so severely as an abigeus. The reason for the severe punishment of rustlers, abigei, was the need of a stronger protection for agricultural interest, particularly in countries where these offenses were more frequent.

• cowstealer

From abigō (“drive away cattle”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aˈbɪ.ɡe.ʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈbiː.d͡ʒe.us]

abigeus m (genitive abigeī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) a cattle stealer

Second-declension noun.

• abactor
• abigeātor

• abigeātor
• abigeātus

• Italian: abigeo
• Portuguese: abígeo
• Spanish: abigeo

• “abigeus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "abigeus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “abigeus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.