A legal compensation or penalty paid as restitution for having a fish weir or trap, particularly in medieval English law.
From Old English 'had' (fish trap or weir) and 'bote' (compensation, from Germanic *bōtaz meaning remedy or payment). This compound reflects the detailed nature of medieval fishery rights and disputes.
Medieval people took their fish traps so seriously that they had an entire legal category just for arguing about them—'hadbote' shows how specific and regulated fishing rights were in feudal England.
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