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Latin grammar Part of Chapter 12

CEFR B1

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Test yourself (22 questions)

40 Latin Legal Terms and the Grammar Inside Them

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

Legal Latin is not vocabulary. Each term is a fragment of a Latin sentence, and the ending it still wears is the meaning. Forty terms fall into seven patterns:

ablativeaccusativegenitivemasculinefemininethe verb endingWhat do the colours mean?
PatternExampleLiterally
a verb form you are to have the body
prep. + ablative from the fact
prep. + accusative beyond the powers
bare ablative at first appearance
agreement rea, reusguilty mind, guilty act
genitive friend of the court
whole sentence the thing speaks for itself

Quick check

Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.

Pick the right one

0/3

De facto or de jure?

  1. They never married, but they have lived as a couple for twenty years.

  2. Parliament passed the Act, so the power now exists in law.

  3. Nobody appointed her, but she has run the department for a decade.

Lawyers write j where classical texts write i: jure is , the same words.

Verbs that name documents

accusativethe verb endingWhat do the colours mean?

The oldest trick in legal Latin: the key word of a writ becomes the name of the document.

TermLiterallyThe verb
you are to have the bodysubjunctive of
affidavithe/she has swornperfect of affido
mandamuswe orderpresent of mando
let him/her bewaresubjunctive of
let it be donesubjunctive of
certiorarito be informed more fullypassive infinitive
prosequito be unwilling to prosecutetwo infinitives

and are jussive subjunctives: the subjunctive on its own in a main clause, ordering someone who is not being spoken to. emptor, let the buyer beware, has emptor in the nominative as the subject. English then made the verb a noun, so contracts have caveats.

is the same mood one person over, a formal instruction to the gaoler. Mandamus is the royal "we": we command. Affidavit is medieval Latin, from affido, to pledge one's faith, to swear.

England and Wales retired two of these names in 2000, when Part 54 of the Civil Procedure Rules renamed certiorari a quashing order and mandamus a mandatory order. The United States and older English case law keep them.

Prepositions with the ablative

ablativegenitiveWhat do the colours mean?

, and put their noun in the ablative, and so do and for where a thing is.

TermLiterallyNote
from the factin practice
jurefrom the lawby right
for the goodshort for
from one sideone party heard
camerain the chambera room, not a device
absentiain absencethe accused not there
in the place of a parent genitive
judiceunder a judgenot yet decided
rataby the reckoned share rata
flagrante delictoin the blazing offencecaught in the act
subpoenaunder penalty , fused

camera means in the judge's private room; camera is simply a vaulted room, and the photographic camera got its name from it by way of the camera obscura, the dark room.

flagrante delicto is mid-offence: flagrante is a present participle, blazing, agreeing with delicto. It applies perfectly well to a burglary.

Prepositions with the accusative

accusativeneuterWhat do the colours mean?

, , and take the accusative.

TermLiterallyThe noun
for the lawsuit, a dispute
for this, neuter
among other things, neuter plural
by itself, the reflexive pronoun
beyond the powers, plural of
turned towards, againstparticiple of

is neuter plural: among other things. Among other people is .

A guardian is appointed for this lawsuit only. is an act beyond the powers an authority has; its opposite, , within the powers, is heard mostly when a court rejects an challenge.

Bare ablatives

ablativeWhat do the colours mean?

Latin can put a noun in the ablative and let the case do a preposition's job: at, by, with.

TermLiterallyThe ablative
at first appearance, fifth declension
by the fact itself agrees with
in good faith
the things to be changed having been changedan ablative absolute

is the cleverest thing in legal Latin: , having been changed, a perfect participle, plus , the things that need changing, a gerundive. Once you have changed what needs changing, the rest applies. An ablative absolute in two words.

, from a thing done afterwards, looks like these but keeps its preposition: plus the ablative . An law reaches back to acts done before it was passed.

A noun and an adjective agreeing

masculinefeminineneuterWhat do the colours mean?

The adjective matches its noun's gender. Change the noun and the ending changes:

TermLiterallyWhy the ending
reusa guilty act is masculine
reaa guilty mind is feminine
judicataa thing judged is feminine
obiter a thing said in passing, neuter
the same adjective, reus, with a masculine and a feminine noun

Nothing about guilt changes between rea and reus; only the gender of the noun does. More in adjective agreement.

The plurals: obiter , things said in passing, and judicatae. Judges say constantly, and plenty of lawyers treat it as a singular.

Genitives hanging off a noun

genitiveWhat do the colours mean?

A genitive means "of", and here it follows its noun.

TermLiterallyThe genitive
friend of the court
delictithe body of the offencedelictum
probandithe burden of provinga gerund
decidendithe reason for decidinga gerund
a place of standinga gerund

Three of the five are gerunds, the verbal noun English makes with -ing (proving, deciding, standing), declined like a noun: probandi, of proving. See gerunds and gerundives.

delicti is not a corpse. It is the body of the offence: the proof that a crime happened at all.

Whole sentences

nominativedativeWhat do the colours mean?
DoctrineLatinLiterally
negligence the thing itself speaks
unpaid work meruitas much as he/she has earned
precedent decisisto stand by things decided
title to goods nobody gives what he/she does not have
consent no wrong is done to one who is willing

is a : passive in form, active in meaning, speaks. The doctrine says the accident is the kind that does not ordinarily happen without negligence, so the facts argue the case themselves.

meruit claims the value of work done when no price was agreed. In , is the dative of a present participle: to one who is willing.

Misuses worth correcting

WrongRightWhy
: obviouson first inspectionit can still be rebutted
(people) means things
: the corpseproof a crime happened delicti, body of the offence
per say is a pronoun
ad = makeshiftfor this one purposethe Latin says only "for this"
in camera = filmedin a private roomcamera is a room

What to do next

  1. Learn the seven patterns in the first table; sort every new term into one.
  2. Check each agreeing pair's gender: rea, reus.
  3. Then read Latin phrases used in English and Latin tattoo phrases.

Practise: test yourself

Sort into groups

0/8

What is the grammar inside each term?

Tap a word, then the group it belongs in.

Pick the right one

0/4

De facto or de jure?

  1. They never married, but they have lived as a couple for twenty years.

  2. Parliament passed the Act, so the power now exists in law.

  3. Nobody appointed her, but she has run the department for a decade.

  4. The treaty formally confers the right of passage.

Spot the mistake

0/2

One word does not agree with its noun. Tap it.

Matching

0/4

Match the term to its literal meaning.

Fill in the blank

0/4

Name the term from its literal meaning.

  1. Literally 'you are to have the body', the writ against unlawful detention: (Two words. The verb is a present subjunctive.)

  2. Literally 'a guilty mind': (A feminine noun with a feminine adjective.)

  3. Literally 'at first appearance', a bare ablative: (The noun is fifth declension.)

  4. Literally 'beyond the powers': (Ultra takes the accusative, and the noun is plural.)

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Frequently asked questions

What does literally mean?
You are to have the body, or may you have the body. is the present subjunctive, second person singular, of , and is a neuter accusative, the object. The words are the operative phrase of a writ ordering whoever holds a prisoner to bring him or her before a court, and English named the whole writ after them. The body is a living one.
What is the difference between rea and reus?
reus is the guilty act, the thing done; rea is the guilty mind that went with it. Grammatically they are the same adjective, reus, agreeing with two nouns: is masculine, so reus; is feminine, so rea. The maxim behind the pair is reum rea: the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is guilty too.
What does mean?
At first appearance. Both words are ablative: agrees with , the ablative of , appearance, a fifth-declension noun. There is no preposition: a bare ablative can mean at or on. A case is one that stands up on first inspection unless it is rebutted. It does not mean obvious or proven.
Is legal Latin pronounced like classical Latin?
Rarely. English courts inherited an anglicised pronunciation from medieval and early modern lawyers, so judice is usually JOO--see, not the classical YOO--keh. The classical pronunciation is the historically accurate one and is what this course teaches, but in a courtroom, say what the room says.
Why is it jure and not ?
Both are right. Classical Latin had one letter, i, for both the vowel and the consonant y sound; the letter j was added much later to mark the consonant. Legal English kept the j ( jure, judicata, judice), while modern editions of classical texts mostly write i. The words are the same.