Definition
A Latin term from old English law referring to the physical scraping or erasure of words or marks on a legal document, particularly a writ. The act of abrasio was the deliberate or accidental removal of written text by scraping the surface of parchment, as distinguished from other forms of alteration such as interlineation (inserting words between lines) or obliteration. In medieval legal practice, the physical integrity of written instruments was essential to their validity, and abrasio raised immediate questions about authenticity and fraud.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow, archaic term encountered almost exclusively in medieval English legal texts and their early modern commentaries. Researchers will find abrasio in sources treating the law of documents, writs, and pleading in the pre-modern common law tradition. Bracton and Fleta, the two principal medieval authorities cited by Burrill, are the natural starting points; both treat the alteration of writs in the context of procedure and the consequences of tampering.
The practical significance of abrasio in its historical context was jurisdictional and procedural: a writ bearing signs of erasure was suspect, and courts would scrutinize whether the alteration was made before or after sealing, and by whom. Fraudulent alteration of a writ could defeat an action entirely or expose a party to severe consequences.
Researchers working on the history of document authentication, the law of forgery, or the development of rules governing written instruments should note that the concept underlying abrasio persists in modern law under different vocabulary — alteration, spoliation, and document tampering — but the term itself does not survive into contemporary legal usage. Do not expect to find abrasio in any modern treatise, statute, or case report. Its appearance in a source is a reliable indicator that the source predates or is closely engaged with medieval or early modern common law materials.
There is also a terminological trap worth flagging: researchers unfamiliar with Latin legal terms may confuse abrasio with abrasion in a personal injury or medical-legal context (a surface wound). The two are entirely unrelated. Context will resolve this, but the visual similarity is enough to cause a momentary misread.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is spare but accurate. He defines abrasio as a "scraping off; erasure in a writ" and anchors the term in Bracton (fol. 413b) and Fleta (lib. 2, c. 13, § 6). Both citations are to well-known and accessible medieval sources. Bracton's treatment of writs and their alteration addresses the broader problem of documentary fraud in pleading, while Fleta's parallel passage largely follows Bracton.
Burrill's entry does not expand beyond these two citations, which is appropriate given the term's very limited footprint even in historical sources. No other major historical legal dictionaries — not Bouvier, not Black's early editions — appear to carry independent entries for abrasio, suggesting it was recognized as sufficiently obscure even by the nineteenth century that a bare citation to Bracton and Fleta was the expected scope of coverage. This is consistent with the term functioning as a technical term of art in medieval writ practice rather than a concept with ongoing doctrinal development.