Definition
In Scots law, an abstract or abridged copy of a legal document, particularly used in historical practice in connection with certain formal instruments. The term functions as a noun in this context — an abbreviate is the document itself, not the act of shortening. Erskine describes abbreviates as anciently written abstracts that were followed in some of the old printed books, indicating the term belonged to a specific formal record-keeping tradition rather than to general drafting practice.
In broader historical legal usage, the term could also describe the act of formally condensing a legal instrument or record into an authorized short form for official purposes — distinct from informal summarization.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An abridgment.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. Also, to reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.
In ordinary English, "abbreviate" is a verb meaning to shorten something. In Scots legal usage, it functions as a noun — a specific type of document, not the act of shortening. A researcher encountering "abbreviate" in a Scots legal text should not read it as a verb or as a synonym for summary in the loose sense; it refers to a recognized instrument or formal extract with defined procedural significance.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is a trap for researchers unfamiliar with Scots legal terminology. The word looks like an English verb that wandered into a text without a referent, but in historical Scots sources it is a technical noun with distinct procedural meaning. Burrill's entry is sparse and relies heavily on Erskine's Institutes, making that treatise the essential primary source for any deeper investigation.
Researchers working with Scottish land records, sasine registers, or historical conveyancing documents may encounter abbreviates as formal extracts or abridged registrations. The term does not carry the same meaning in English law sources of the same period, so cross-jurisdictional reading requires care. If a document in an English law context uses "abbreviate," it is almost certainly using the ordinary English verb, not the Scots legal noun — context will determine which is operative.
The term is largely extinct in modern legal drafting. Its appearance in a source is itself a dating and jurisdictional signal: Scots law, historical period, likely connected to formal registration practice.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole source in the Law Mind corpus covering this term, and its entry is thin. Burrill flags it as a Scots law term and anchors it to Erskine's Institutes (Book 2, Title 12, § 43), noting that the form was anciently written and followed in some old printed books, including references to Bracton — though Bracton is an English authority, suggesting Burrill may be gesturing toward comparable abridgment practices across traditions rather than asserting Bracton used the term in the same sense.
No other major historical law dictionaries in wide circulation (Bouvier, Black's early editions) give this term significant treatment, which confirms its narrow jurisdictional scope. Researchers should go directly to Erskine for authoritative historical context. The sparseness of dictionary coverage is itself informative: this was a term of art within Scots conveyancing practice, not a term of general common law currency.
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Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to Scots law and historical Scottish legal practice. It does not carry technical legal meaning in English common law or in American law. Researchers working outside Scottish legal materials are unlikely to encounter it as a term of art.
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