AGRI

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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AGRIAuthored
The Law Mind • 724 words
Definition
A Latin term meaning "lands" or "fields." In legal usage, agri refers specifically to arable lands held or cultivated in common fields under the open field system of land tenure historically prevalent in England. It is the plural of the Latin ager (land, field) and appears most often in older English legal texts, conveyances, and land records dealing with common-field agriculture.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Abbreviation for "agriculture." Historical common usage: Not independently defined in Webster's 1913; the root word agriculture and related terms appear, but agri as a standalone form was not treated as an English word. Editorial note: The modern shorthand use of "agri-" as a prefix or abbreviation (agribusiness, agri-sector) bears no legal significance. Researchers encountering agri in historical legal documents should not read it as an abbreviation for agriculture in the modern commercial sense — it is a Latin genitive or nominative plural form with a precise land-tenure meaning.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter agri almost exclusively in pre-modern English land records, Latin legal maxims, and treatises on common fields and copyhold tenure. Several research traps are worth flagging: First, the term operates within the vocabulary of the open field system, where distinctions between agri (arable strips in common fields), prata (meadows), and pasturae (pastures) carried legal weight in defining rights of common and the scope of a tenant's holding. Conflating these categories when reading a historical conveyance or survey can produce misreadings of what land rights were actually conveyed. Second, agri in Latin legal instruments does not always mean "common fields" specifically — it can simply mean "lands" in a generic sense, as Burrill's entry makes plain. Context determines which reading applies. When agri appears alongside terms like communia or in campis (in the fields), the common-field meaning is likely operative. When it appears in broader Latin recitals of property, it may simply enumerate landed holdings without invoking common-field tenure. Third, the term connects to the broader corpus of English agricultural and copyhold law that was progressively dismantled by the Enclosure Acts. Primary source documents referencing agri in the context of common fields may predate, accompany, or respond to enclosure proceedings, which affects how land rights described in those documents were subsequently extinguished or transformed.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge tightly on this term. Both editions of Black's define agri as "arable lands in common fields," importing the land-tenure context directly. Burrill takes the broader view — "Lat. Lands. Plural of ager" — which is philologically accurate and serves as a useful corrective: agri is not a term of art confined to common fields but a general Latin word whose legal significance depended on context and era. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry as captured in the source material does not contain a usable definition for agri; the text appears to be a fragment from an adjacent entry on agreements. Researchers should not rely on Rapalje & Lawrence for this term. No historical dictionary in the Law Mind corpus provides extended treatment of agri. The term was apparently considered self-explanatory to practitioners working with Latin land records, which means the dictionaries are less useful here than primary sources such as manorial surveys, terriers, and treatises on common-field tenure.
Jurisdictional Note
Agri as a term of art in English land law has no direct counterpart in American legal usage. American land tenure developed largely outside the open field system, and the term does not appear in American statutes or case law in its common-field sense. It remains relevant only in research touching English legal history or colonial-era documents derived from English land law traditions.
Related Terms
Ager — singular form; the root Latin term for field or land Common fields — the land-tenure system in which agri typically appears Copyhold — the tenure form frequently associated with common-field holdings Right of common — the use rights appurtenant to agri in common fields Enclosure — the legal process that extinguished common-field tenure and rendered agri largely obsolete as a live legal category Prata — Latin for meadows; co-occurs with agri in land surveys and conveyances Pastura — Latin for pasture; similarly co-occurs in multi-category land descriptions
AGRImain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Arable lands in common fields.
AGRImain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(42) SIDERATION; RESCISSION. at least two persons; uney must definitely circumstances of the case. Agreements intend the same thing; they must comare also styled simple and express, ac municate this intention to one another; cording to the absence or presence of a and the object of their intention must be seal, but these words more properly apply such as will, when carried out, alter their to "contract" (q.v.) See also ASSENT; CONlegal positions, e. g. by producing the transfer of property, or the creation or extinction of a right. The communication of intention may be formal or infor47 Wis. 501. mal, simple or complicated, but it may always be reduced to the elements of a & Ald. 326. proposal made by one party and accepted by the other; so that until a proposal is Halst. (N. J.) 96. absolutely accepted there is no agreement. For an elaborate examination of the whole subject, see Sav. Syst. 140; Chit. Cont. 8 et seq.; 3 App. Cas. 1124. See PROMISE. 285. AGREEMENT, (defined). 24 Wend. (N. Y.) (synonymous with "understanding"). (what memorandum is not). 3 Barn. (book account, no evidence of). 1 (by insolvent, to procure discharge). 4 Barn. & Ald. 691; 8 Barn. & C. 421; 2 Bing. 441; 3 Car. & P. 379; 3 Dowl. & Ry. 567; 4 Τ. R. 166; 4 Halst. (N. J.) 352; 1 Cai. (Ν. Υ.) 175; 3 Id. 213; 1 Hall (N. Y.) 635. (by surety upon promissory note). 5 (for sale of lands). 6 Barn. & C. 665, & Ry. 678; 5 Halst. (N. J.) 158. (to purchase, how enforced). 2 Halst. ? 2. "Contract" distinguished.-In Mass. 358. its narrower and popular sense "agree9 Dowl. ment" has the same meaning as "contract," especially "contract not under (N. J.) 121; 21 Wend. (N. Y.) 230. seal;" thus, an agreement for a lease is a contract to grant a lease. "Agreement" and "contract," however, are sometimes opposed to one another, "contract" generally denoting an arrangement complete in itself, while "agreement" may denote a part of an arrangement. Thus, in a sale of a house, "contract of sale" denotes the whole arrangement between the vendor and purchaser, while each clause binding either of the parties to do a specific thing is an agreement, e. g. a clause binding the vendor to put the property in repair before the sale is completed. See 5 East 10; 2 Sm. Lead. Cas. 241. See MUTUALITY; CONTRACT. (under stamp act). 5 Esp. 89. (under statute of frauds). 4 Barn. & Ald. 595, 600, 603; 3 Bing. 107; 6 Id. 201, 506; 3 Brod. & B. 20; 1 Campb. 242; 3 Carr. & P. 289; 2 Chit. Pl. 254 n.; 5 East 10, 19, 20 d.; 6 Id. 307; 9 Id. 348; Fell Guar. 337; 7 J. B. Moore 252; 1 Mad. Ch. 374, 375; 18 Ves. 175; 1 Ves. & B. 341; 5 Cranch (U. S.) 142; 1 Pet. (U. S.) 476, 650; 4 Wheat. (U. S.) 91; 34 Ala. 129; 6 Conn. 81; 12 Mass. 297; 17 Id. 122;9 Allen (Mass.) 8, 11, 16; Penn. (N. J.) 619; South. (N. J.) 570; 3 Johns. (N. Y.) 210, 215; 8 Id. 37; 14 Id. 484; 2 Den (N. Y.) 87; 4 Id. 275; 24 Wend. (N. Y.) 35. 3. The various kinds of agreements.-Agreements are called conditional when they are to have full effect only on the happening of certain events, or the existence of a certain contingent state of affairs; executed, when nothing further remains to be done by the parties, as in the case of a sale accompanied by delivery and payment of the price; executory, when they are to be performed in the future, or are merely preliminary to some more formal and solemn transaction; express, when the terms and conditions are openly uttered and avowed by the parties at the time of making; implied when the terms are not so expressed, but the law supposes or implies the making from the facts and 280. (under statute of limitations). 15 Ind. (used for "warrant," or "promise," in a deposition). 8 Allen (Mass.) 577, 579. stitution). 14 Pet. (U. S.) 571. (with another State, etc., in U. S. Con-
AGRImain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
Lat. Lands. Plural of ager, (q. v.)
agrinoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Abbreviation of agriculture.

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