11 May 2020
In the United States today, a bailiff is an official who is charged with keeping order in a courtroom and who often acts as crier, announcing the opening of proceedings. But in England the title is used for any number of administrative magistrates or officials. The English word comes to us from the Old French, one of the administrative terms introduced to England by the Normans, and that in turn is from the medieval Latin bajulus, meaning carrier or supporter, and by extension governor or minister. The English word is in place by about 1300, as in this example from the life of Thomas Becket contained in the South English Legendary (Oxford, Bodleian MS Laud Misc. 108):
Al-þei it þoruȝ treuþe were: þe playdinge scholde beon i-brouȝt
bi-fore þe kinge and is baillifs: and to holi churche nouȝt.(Although it was the thorough truth, the pleading should have been brought before the king and his bailiffs, and not to the holy church.)
A bailiwick is originally the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and by extension it has generalized to mean a person’s area of expertise, skill, or authority. It’s a compounding of bailie, a form of bailiff, and -wick, an Old English word for town. So, a bailiwick is literally a bailiff’s district. The word is in place by 1431 when it appears in the chronicles of Durham Cathedral Priory (York Minster Library, MS XVI.i.12):
Ye shall doo all your payne and diligence to destroye and make to cese all maner of heresyes and erroures commonly called Lollardnes with in your baillifwyke.
(You shall make all effort and do all diligence to destroy and cease all manner of heresies and errors that are commonly called Lollardy within your bailiwick.)
The generalized sense of bailiwick is an Americanism that is in place by at least 1837, when the New England Farmer and Horticultural Register of 13 December includes:
“Let every one keep within his own Bailiwick.”
We like above motto, and believe the observance of it would be wholesome and profitable to farmers. We are fond of seeing a man stick to his own occupation; keeping on “his own side of the hedge.” If we all were to follow this good rule, surely agriculture would be no loser by it. Time was, when a farmer was obliged to be “jack at all trades.” But this was when mechanics were few, compared to the present times.
Sources:
American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition, 2020, bailiwick, n.
Anglo-Norman Dictionary, 2017, s.v. bailliff.
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, 2013, s.v. bajulus.
Garner, Bryan A. ed. Black’s Law Dictionary, 11th edition, 2019, s.v. bailiff, bailiwick.
Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptore Tres, by Geoffrey of Coldingham, Robert Greystones, and William de Chambre. London: J.B. Nichols and Son, 1839.
Middle English Dictionary, 2018, s.v. bailif, n. and bailif-wik, n.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. bailiff, n. and bailiwick, n.