Manslaughter is killing somebody without having planned to. Convicted of manslaughter, corporate manslaughter, a manslaughter charge.
In English law it divides into voluntary manslaughter, where there was intent but a partial defence such as loss of control applies, and involuntary manslaughter, where death resulted from an unlawful act or gross negligence. The difference from murder is the state of mind, and it is the difference between a mandatory life sentence and a discretionary one. Note corporate manslaughter, which is an offence a company can commit.
1nounmanslaughterKilling somebody without having planned to.
“He was jailed for manslaughter after a fight outside a pub left a man dead.”
manslaughter is an unlawful killing.
Old English mansliht is man plus slaughter — the plainest possible compound, and one of the very few legal terms in English that is entirely native rather than Latin or French.
Old English
mansliht — murder; killing of a person
Middle English
manslaȝter
English, today
manslaughter
From Middle English manslaȝter, manslauter, equivalent to man + slaughter, or taken as an adaptation of Old English mansliht (“murder; killing of a person”), from mann + sliht, see manslaught. Cognate with Scots manslauchter (“homicide”). Compare also Old Frisian monslaga (“murder”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA