The material payment that a murderer must pay to the relatives of his or her victim as compensation for the crime. Once the weregeld has been paid, the crime is essentially expunged and there is no other punishment. The term comes from old english words meaning "man" + "gold". In small-scale societies, all crimes are usually considered to be torts and weregeld is viewed as the appropriate resolution for them. Weregeld is still an important legal principle for murder cases in some conservative moslem nations today. Survivals of this legal concept also can be seen in financial settlements for civil suits in the united states and other western nations.