Definition
A Law French adverbial phrase meaning "at present," "now," or "for the present time." Used in medieval English legal proceedings to indicate immediacy — that something was to occur or be returned without delay, at the current moment, or for the current occasion only. The phrase appears principally in Year Book records of pleading and procedure, where timing and the stage of proceedings carried precise legal significance.
Common Language
This is a Law French phrase with no meaningful modern common English counterpart. The component words — "a" (a preposition, from French "à") and "ore" (an archaic form derived from Latin "hora," meaning hour or time) — are not in current general usage in this combined form. The phrase belongs to the specialized vocabulary of medieval Anglo-Norman legal practice and is properly understood only in that procedural context.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Year Book materials, early plea rolls, or scholarship on medieval English civil procedure will encounter "a ore" as a term of procedural timing. Its significance is narrow but precise: when a writ, pleading, or return was described as required "a ore," it signaled that the obligation was immediate — not deferred to a future day certain, not carried over to the next term, but due now, at the present moment in the proceeding.
The chief research trap is misreading the phrase as directional or substantive rather than temporal. "Ore" in this context is not the mineral ore, nor a geographic reference, but a temporal marker. Confusing it with similar-looking Law French or Latin terms can distort understanding of procedural deadlines in early English court records.
This phrase also illustrates a broader challenge in pre-modern legal research: Law French terms of art often compress into a short phrase what modern procedure would express at length. Recognizing "a ore" as equivalent to "immediately" or "forthwith" — in the specific sense of within the current procedural moment — helps researchers accurately reconstruct the timetable and obligations described in early pleading records.
The phrase appears in the context of returns — specifically, writs returnable immediately rather than at a future term date. This connects to the broader procedural category of returnable process and the rules governing when and how defendants, sheriffs, or other officers were obligated to respond to the court.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary source preserving this phrase in the Anglo-American legal dictionary tradition. Burrill defines it concisely and correctly: "At present; now" and "For the present; for this time," citing the Year Books of Michaelmas term, 8 Edward III (1334), at pages 29 and 30. The citation to returnable process — "retornable a ore" — confirms that the phrase had a recognized procedural application beyond mere adverbial use.
Other major historical legal dictionaries, including Jacob's Law Dictionary and Tomlin's Law Dictionary, do not appear to carry this entry, reflecting its status as a term largely confined to the Year Book period and not carried forward into later common law practice vocabulary. This makes Burrill the most significant reference source for the phrase in the English legal dictionary tradition.
The narrow citation base in historical dictionaries accurately reflects the term's historical reach: it belongs to a layer of Anglo-Norman legal French that was functional in the 13th and 14th centuries but had largely passed out of active use before the codification projects of the early modern period.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is historical to English common law procedure and has no active jurisdictional application in modern U.S., English, or Commonwealth courts. Research relevance is confined to medieval English legal history and Year Book scholarship.