byelaw

UK/ˈbaɪ.lɔː/US/ˈbaɪ.lɔ/

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: byelaws

A byelaw is a rule made by a local authority. Break a byelaw, a park byelaw, byelaws displayed at the gate.

It applies only in one place and must be within powers granted by parliament. The by in byelaw is an old Norse word for a town rather than the preposition by.

Definitions of byelaw

1nounbyelawA rule made by a local authority.C2
“A byelaw banned cycling on the promenade in summer.”

byelaw is a rule.

Also accepted in games: ordinance

Where it comes from

Old English
bīlage — bylaw
Middle English
bylawe
English
bylaw
English, today
byelaw

Built from

lǫg · Old Norse — laws; jurisdiction

bylaw comes from Middle English bylawe, bilawe, partly from Old English bīlage (“bylaw”) and partly from a variant of Middle English byrelawe, birlawe, from Old Norse byjar (“town's; settlement's”) + lǫg (“laws; jurisdiction”). byrlaw is attested earlier in English but is unattested in Old Norse and the cognates in Scandinavian languages follow the development of bylaw: Danish bylov (“municipal law”), Swedish bylag and byalag.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the City

Practise this word

byelaw in the wild

Back-to-backs were later deemed unsatisfactory, and the passage of the Public Health Act 1875 meant that no more were built; instead byelaw terraced houses took their place.
Birmingham Back to Backs
The passage of the Public Health Act 1875 permitted municipal corporations to ban new back-to-backs, replaced in the next phase of building by byelaw terraced houses.
Back-to-back house
Some byelaws are also made by private companies or charities that exercise public or semi-public functions, such as airport operators, water companies or the National Trust.
Byelaws in the United Kingdom
The regulations also give councils powers to revoke byelaws under an entirely local process.
Byelaws in the United Kingdom
Of those built after the passage of the Public Health Act 1875, the so-called byelaw terraced houses, each had its own toilet, usually outside.
Two-up two-down

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the bīlage family

bylaw

byelaw — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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