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Where does the term "law suit" for a legal case come from? It seems to perhaps only be used to refer to civil cases, however. Also, is it a purely American (USA) term or does it also find use elsewhere?

TylerDurden
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    The term you're probably looking for is "etymology", which is the study of the origin of words. A Google search for "lawsuit etymology" seems to provide the answer. The "lawsuit" Wikipedia page also has an etymology section. – NotThatGuy Feb 17 '23 at 13:31
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    Since you're a user with 2000+ rep, can you tell us why you didn't search for the answer outside of SE first; or if you did and failed to find an answer, what you searched? – Nike Dattani Feb 18 '23 at 16:27

1 Answers1

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The historical root is Old French sieute, sivre meaning "follow, pursue". You pursue your defendant in court. This is an ordinary legal term in post-Norman England. The root is also invoked every time the government prosecutes a person for a crime. The expression "law suit" is more modern, being a rearrangement of "suit at law". An early attestation in the legal sense is (1325) Statutes of Realm (Rawl. B.520) (2011) v. 6

Ant ȝif a ne cometh noȝt, þanne a sullen ben iiuged ase for ateint, ant sullen ȝelde duble, þoru þe siwte of þe king, to hoem þat habbeth ihaued þene harm.

user6726
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    Is that 1325 quote intelligible to you? And is it typical to use the word lawsuit for a criminal case as well as civil ones? – TylerDurden Feb 16 '23 at 19:11
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    Not really: a quasi-etymological reading is "And if he cometh nought, then he shall be judged tainted, and shall yield double, through the suit of the king, to whom that he has harmed", but I also grok a bit of Norwegian and German. These days, lawsuits are civil suits, not criminal. I even struggle with interpreting old-style Modern English judgments. – user6726 Feb 16 '23 at 19:26
  • Not really, as in it's not really intelligible to you? And that do you mean by "old-style" Modern English judgements? – TylerDurden Feb 16 '23 at 19:29
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    It's not really intelligible to me, I'm just guessing based on my knowledge of the history of English. "Old style" is a continuum; I struggle with anything before around 1820. – user6726 Feb 16 '23 at 20:07
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    Modern English emerges from Middle English a few decades before Shakespeare. – ohwilleke Feb 17 '23 at 01:19
  • I tried reading some early 1800s- judgments earlier today and it was indeed a challenge. I had to resist the urge to get diverted from what I'm working on the make a post about how to interpret it. – TylerDurden Feb 17 '23 at 01:41
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    @Seekinganswers This question might fit on [English.se] where I'm a mod, although etymologies can be looked up easily enough. You might find questions there about the progression from Old English to Early/Late Middle English to Early Modern English and Modern English. I would tentatively assign the quote here to Early Middle English. – Andrew Leach Feb 17 '23 at 14:05
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    @Seekinganswers - In response to your second question in your first comment: No, it is not typical to use the word 'lawsuit' for a criminal case. If the sentence "The root is also invoked every time the government prosecutes a person for a crime" confused you, you should realize user6726 is only talking about the Latin root for the French sieute. That root is "sequor", which means "follow" and has "secutus" as one of its forms. – Mark Foskey Feb 17 '23 at 16:03
  • @MarkFoskey no, that was all pretty clear to me. (Apart from the latin trivia) – TylerDurden Feb 17 '23 at 16:45
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    @Seekinganswers it's easy enough to understand for people who had to do a lot of Shakespeare and Chaucer in high school, which I think is pretty common in English speaking countries outside the US. Once you know the basics, like that þ is the old letter Thorn, which just stands for 'th' and ȝ is Yogh, which is just the 'gh' sound, it becomes way easier. – Eugene Feb 17 '23 at 19:03
  • In contemporary French, there still is the female noun of (la) poursuite (example on porvo), e.g., to run behind a person because you want to catch up/to be as least as fast as him/her, or as legal action to to follow-up his/her actions (sometimes described as poursuite pénale) which can be both by police (early stage of investigation) as well as by prosecutors/attorneys (in the advanced stage). – Buttonwood Feb 17 '23 at 19:50
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    You mean like a pursuit? – TylerDurden Feb 17 '23 at 23:11