Bailiwick

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Bailiwick

A bailiwick is the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff

Bailiff

Bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offices and duties vary greatly....
. The term was also applied to a territory in which the sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
ical sense, to indicate a sphere of authority, experience, activity, study, or interest.

The term originated in France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
(bailie being the Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
term for a bailiff).

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Encyclopedia

A bailiwick is the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff

Bailiff

Sheriff

Metaphor

France

Old French

Ancien Régime

Ancien R?gime refers primarily to the aristocracy, sociology, and politics system established in France under the Valois Dynasty and House of Bourbon dynasties ....
in France, the bailli was the king's representative in a bailliage, charged with the application of justice and control of the administration. In southern France, the term generally used was sénéchal (cf seneschal

Seneschal

A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the s?n?chal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli....
) who held office in the sénéchaussée. The administrative network of baillages was established in the 13th century, based on the earlier medieval fiscal and tax divisions (the 'baillie') which had been used by earlier sovereign princes. (For more on this French judicial system, see bailli

Bailli

Bailli was the rank and title of the head of each of the bailiwicks of the Knights Hospitaller and also of the head, at Rhodes and Malta, of one of the seven, later eight, Langues into which the members of the Knights Hospitaller were grouped once the Order was established on Rhodes and subsequently on Malta....
, prévôt and Early Modern France

Early Modern France

Early Modern France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century . During this period France evolved from a feudalism regime to an increasingly centralized state organized around a powerful absolute monarchy that relied on the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings and the explic...
.)

A bailiwick was also the territorial division of the Teutonic Order.

In English, the original French bailie was combined with '-wic', the Anglo-Saxon

Old English language

Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century....
suffix meaning a village, to produce a term meaning literally 'bailiff's village' - the original geographic scope of a bailiwick. In the 19th century, it was absorbed into American English

American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
as a metaphor for one's sphere of knowledge or activity.

The term survives in administrative usage in the British Crown dependencies of the Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are a group of islands in the English Channel, off the France coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey....
, which for administrative purposes are grouped into the two bailiwicks of Jersey (comprising the island of Jersey

Jersey

The Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, ?cr?hous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs....
and uninhabited islets such as the Minquiers

Minquiers

The Minquiers are a group of islands and rocks situated 9 miles south of Jersey forming part of the Bailiwick of Jersey. They are administratively part of the Parish of Grouville....
and Écréhous

Écréhous

The ?cr?hous are a groups of islands and rocks situated six miles north-east of Jersey . They form part of the Bailiwick of Jersey and are administratively part of the Parish of Saint Martin, Jersey....
) and Guernsey (comprising the islands of Guernsey

Guernsey

The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Isles Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.As well as the island of Guernsey itself, it also includes Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, Burhou, Lihou and other islets....
, Sark

Sark

Sark is a small island in the southwestern English Channel. It is one of the Channel Islands, is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and as such is a British crown dependency....
, Alderney

Alderney

Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands and a British Crown dependency. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is long and wide....
, Brecqhou

Brecqhou

Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is located just west of Sark and has a surface area of approximately ....
, Herm

Herm

Herm is the smallest of the Channel Islands that is open to the public. Auto-free zone from the small island just like its Channel Island neighbour, Sark....
, Jethou

Jethou

Jethou is a small island that is part of the Channel Islands. It is privately leased, and not open to the public.It is immediately south of Herm and has an area of approximately ....
and Lihou

Lihou

Not to be confused with Lihou Reef and CaysLihou /'li.u/ is a small tidal island that is part of the Channel Islands. It lies off the west coast of Guernsey and is the most westerly point in the Channel Islands....
). Each Channel Island bailiwick is headed by a Bailiff

Bailiff (Channel Islands)

The Bailiff is the first civil officer in each of the Channel Islands bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, serving as president of the legislature and the Royal Court....
.

Bailiwick is also used in computer DNS terminology to reference the area of control a domain has over subdomain name spaces. For example: www.google.com, 1.google.com, 2.google.com are all in the bailiwick google.com, but www.ebay.com and www.google.net are in a different bailiwick.