Other forms: bylaws
A bylaw is a local rule made by a council or an organisation. Council bylaws, breach a bylaw, the club's bylaws.
It binds only within its own area or membership and cannot contradict the general law above it, which is what keeps it a bylaw rather than legislation. The by- is not the preposition — it comes from an old Norse word for a town. Note the spelling byelaw, also used in Britain.
1nounbylawA local rule made by a council or organisation.
“A local bylaw forbids cycling on the pavement in the town centre.”
bylaw is a rule.
From Old Norse byr, a town, plus law. The by- is not the English preposition.
Old English
bīlage — bylaw
Middle English
bylawe
English, today
bylaw
Built from
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