Request

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 2 Feb 2007, Richard Dougherty wrote:

> Wonder if someone can help out here. Any suggestions for a resource for
> discovering the meaning of 18th century legal terms?  If it includes some
> description of legal shorthand, abbreviations, etc., all the better.
> Off-list replies would be great.

The Oxford English Dictionary (not great on legal vocabulary, but in many 
ways the only game in town for this kind of question).  18th-century law 
dictionaries would also be of some use, of course, but law dictionaries 
are so amateurish that their utility is sharply limited.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------