Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "without day." In historical legal usage, to send a matter *adeu* — or to go *adeu* — was to dismiss or conclude proceedings without a future day being assigned for the parties to return to court. A judgment or dismissal *adeu* was final in the sense that no further date was set; the matter was done. The phrase appears most commonly in the formula *alez adeu* ("go without day"), recorded in the Year Books of the early fourteenth century.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not found as a standard English entry. The visually similar "adieu" (farewell) is a French-derived English word expressing a final parting.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as a distinct term; the related "adieu" appears as a farewell or leave-taking.
The near-identity in appearance between *adeu* and *adieu* is not coincidental — both derive from the same root and share the sense of finality. But the legal term carries a technical procedural meaning that the common word of farewell does not: *adeu* in legal records signals a formal disposition of a case, not merely a social parting. Researchers reading Year Book entries or early plea rolls should not treat the term as decorative language.
Common Confusion
ADEU and ADIEU (common word): The spelling variants overlap significantly in manuscript sources, and early printed transcriptions sometimes normalize the legal term to the familiar French farewell. Researchers working with Year Book transcriptions or early abridgments should treat any appearance of *adeu*, *adieu*, or cognate spellings in a procedural context as a potential reference to the legal formula, not a scribal flourish.
ADEU and SINE DIE: The Latin equivalent *sine die* — "without day" — carries the same procedural meaning and remained in active legal use long after Law French fell out of practice. Modern continuances and adjournments *sine die* are the direct functional descendants of the *adeu* dismissal. The terms are conceptually identical; they differ only in language and era.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus will encounter *adeu* almost exclusively in Year Book materials and early abridgments covering the period roughly from Edward I through Henry VI. Several cautions apply:
First, the term signals a final disposition without further court date — distinguishing it from a continuance, which does assign a future day. Misreading *adeu* as a mere adjournment distorts the procedural posture of the case.
Second, spelling is unstable in manuscript and early printed sources. Variants include *adew*, *adieu*, *adewe*, and occasionally *a dieu*. No single normalized spelling should be assumed authoritative in searches.
Third, the phrase *alez adeu* ("go without day") is the operative formula. Either word alone may appear in truncated marginal notes or abridgments. Researchers relying on keyword searches should build in variant spellings and consider searching for the Latin equivalent *sine die* when tracing the procedural concept forward in time.
Fourth, this term has no meaningful presence in post-Stuart English legal materials or in American legal sources. If it appears in a document after approximately 1700, treat the usage as antiquarian or quoted from an earlier authority.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary shelf source and handles the term briefly but accurately: "L. Fr. Without day." Burrill cites the Year Book Trinity Term 5 Edward II (1311–12) at folio 173, giving *alez adeu* as the operative phrase, and cross-references *Adieu*. He also notes the related term *Adevant* (L. Fr. "before," citing Kelham's Norman-French dictionary), which indicates that Burrill understood these entries as part of a cluster of Law French procedural vocabulary rather than isolated terms.
Kelham's *Norman-French Dictionary* (1779), referenced by Burrill in the *Adevant* entry, remains a useful parallel source for Law French vocabulary of this period, though Kelham does not appear to have entered *adeu* independently.
No other major historical law dictionaries in the standard shelf — Bouvier, Black, Tomlin, Jacob — give meaningful independent treatment to *adeu* as distinct from the *sine die* tradition they address under that Latin heading. The Law French vocabulary was already largely archaic by the time those dictionaries were compiled. This is an area where Burrill's coverage of early English materials is notably superior.