Dictionary of terms and phrases used in American or - MindSerpent

732 Pages·2009·28.15 MB·English

CORNELL LAW LIBRARY
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DICTIONARY
OP
TERMS AND PHRASES
USED IN
AMERICAN OR ENGLISH JURISPRUDENCE.
BY
BENJ. VAUGHAN ABBOTT.
Vol. I.
A—
K.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BKOWlSr, AND COMPANY.
1879.
t
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by
BENJ. VAUGHAN ABBOTT,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
University Press: John Wilson& Son,
Cambridge,
TO
ELBRIDGE GEREY,
T.
OF THE NEW YORK BAR,
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED
IN APPRECIATION OF HIS EXTENSIVE AND VARIED ATTAINMENTS IN
THE KNOWLEDGE OP JUKISPKUDENOE,
AND
AS A TOKEN OF BEOABD INSPIRED ET A rKIENDSHIP
OP MANY TEARS.
The original of tiiis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022836583
;
PREFACE.
This work is strictly a Law Dictionary, rather than what
may be called a Dictionary of the Law. It deals with the
meanings ofLaw Terms. It has in view the wants ofstudents
and readers in topics newto them, who require an explanation
of expressions which they meet for the first time; of prac-
titioners,who find in instrumentsbroughtbefore them for con-
struction words employed in unusual senses or connections,
and desire to know all the shades and limits of their meaning
of compilers and draughtsmen, who are concerned to choose
precisely the right phraseology to express a definite legal idea.
Being devoted to these wants, it is not occupied with essays
upon the substantial rules of the law. When the technical
meaning of a word or phrase has been fairly given, with suffi-
cient illustrations of its application and use to enable the
reader to determine what it may mean, or how he should
employ it, the duty undertaken has been deemed fulfilled.
Every reader of the Reports knows that there are numerous
decisions which expound the judicial view of the meaning of
some term involved. They are of great value in legal lexi-
cography,but haveneverbeensystematicallycollected, oreven
indexed. The great foundation of this dictionary is in these
decisions. The leading American Reports, to the extent ofat
leasthalf, have been patiently examined, page by page, by the
author, or assistants working in company with him, for cases
ofthis character. OtherReports, includingthe notableEnglish
ones, have been examined, as thoroughly as practicable,by aid
of all ready guides to their contents. The judicial definitions
thus collected have formed the basis of the present work.
There have been added a liberal selection of extracts from
\1 PEEFACB.
kindred works thus making the volumes in a good degree a
;
digestofthemodernEnglishlawdictionaries. Extractsaccredi-
ted to a writer by his name only are from his dictionary; thus,
referencestoBotjvibr,BtTBEiLL,orWhaeton,notnamingbook
andpage,aretothedictionaryofthewriternamed,nottoBouvi-
er's Institutes, Burrill on Assignments, orWharton'sPrinciples
of ConTeyancing. The privilege of making extracts from the
chapter of definitions in Abbott's NewYorkDigest (which has
been continued and enlarged in a new edition and supplements
by Mr. Austin Abbott), has materially aided completeness,
and oughtto be specially acknowledged here,because the def-
initions are cited from the reports themselves rather than
fromtheDigest. Like aid has been derived from the United
States Digest.
The difference in the type employed at different parts of the
page needs explanation. The matter in large type (bourgeois
leaded) is what has been compiled for this work. Not always
strictly original (for, especially in respect to English subjects,
portions of an approved account are sometimes adopted from
another work, as more likely to be useful than what could be
vmtten anew), it expresses the author's views, for the sound-
ness of which he is responsible. The matter in small type
(brevier solid) consists of extracts from writings and decisions
presenting additional, sometimes inconsistent views; for these,
the author only assumes the duty of correct condensation. The
large type is in the nature of a treatise text; the small type
is rather a digest of the decisions. Small type is used not
as a means of saving space upon paragraphs of minor im-
portance, but to distinguish the extracts, or the Digest portion
of the work.
BENJ. VAUGHAN ABBOTT.
Nbw Yobe,June, 1879.