Definition
In Law French, *ala* (also *aler*) means "goes," "gone," or "went." It appears in early English legal records and Year Book-era pleading as a term of movement or departure. The phrase *ala son voy* — "went his way" — is the most commonly encountered usage, indicating that a party departed or proceeded on a course of action.
The term has no independent doctrinal weight. Its significance is purely linguistic: it is a verb form embedded in archaic Law French phrases found in medieval case reports and plea rolls.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A wing or winglike anatomic process or part, especially of bone; the flattened border of some stems, fruits, or seeds; or, in ancient Rome, a small room opening into a larger room or courtyard.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A winglike organ or part.
The anatomical and architectural meanings of *ala* derive from classical Latin and have no connection to the Law French legal usage. A researcher encountering *ala* in a legal manuscript should not apply the Latin anatomical sense. The two usages share a Latin root but diverged entirely in application — one in scientific and classical contexts, the other in the vernacular legal French of medieval England.
Common Confusion
*Ala* is easily mistaken for the Latin anatomical term by researchers unfamiliar with Law French. It is equally easy to overlook as a mere particle in a longer phrase, obscuring its function as a verb. Researchers should also distinguish *ala* (went/goes) from *aler* (the infinitive form, to go) and from *alée*, a related form sometimes appearing in similar contexts. The phrase *ala son voy* is a set expression and should be read as a unit.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in Year Book reports and early English plea roll transcriptions — sources that predate standardized Law French orthography and that are reproduced inconsistently across different printed editions. Researchers working in these materials should be alert to variant spellings: *alla*, *ala*, and *a son voy* (with the verb omitted) all appear in the corpus.
The primary research trap is misidentification. Because *ala* looks like a Latin anatomical term, full-text searches in digitized legal databases may surface irrelevant results from medical jurisprudence, anatomical evidence discussions, or property descriptions involving physical features. Narrowing searches to Law French glossary contexts or Year Book collections will improve precision.
The term itself carries no doctrinal meaning that evolves over time. Its value to the researcher is entirely interpretive: understanding it unlocks the meaning of the surrounding phrase. Anyone working with Dyer's Reports — the source Burrill cites — or similar early English reporters will encounter this kind of Law French shorthand regularly. A working familiarity with basic Law French verb forms is a prerequisite for reading these sources without distortion.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical source in the Law Mind corpus for this term, and its entry is brief but adequate for the term's limited scope. Burrill identifies *ala* as Law French, gives both "goes/gone" and "went" as equivalents, and anchors the phrase *ala son voy* to Dyer's Reports. No other major historical legal dictionaries — not Bouvier, not Black's early editions — carry a dedicated entry for *ala* as a standalone term, which reflects its status as a functional word rather than a term of art. The absence from other dictionaries is not a gap to be suspicious of; it accurately reflects the term's minor, linguistic role in the corpus.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the Law French tradition of English common law and appears almost exclusively in materials predating the formal abolition of Law French in English courts in 1731. It has no recognized usage in American, Scottish, or civil law traditions.