Definition
A Law French adverbial term meaning "then," "at that time," or "in that place." Alors appears in medieval English legal manuscripts and pleadings as a locative and temporal marker, used to fix an action, event, or status to a particular moment or location in a legal narrative. It is the Law French equivalent of the Latin tunc (then, at that time) and ibi (there, in that place).
Why It Matters in Research
Alors is a reading term, not a substantive legal concept. Researchers encounter it when working with medieval English court records, Year Books, or early pleading manuscripts composed in Law French — the language of the English common law courts from roughly the Norman Conquest through the seventeenth century. Its significance is interpretive: misreading alors as a term of art, rather than as a simple adverb of time or place, can distort the meaning of a passage. When transcribing or translating early plea rolls or Year Book reports, lors and alors sometimes appear in abbreviated or contracted forms, and the distinction between the two (lors meaning "then" in a conditional or consequential sense; alors in a more straightforward temporal or locative sense) is worth noting in context. Researchers working in Law French sources should consult Kelham's Norman French Law Dictionary alongside Burrill, as Burrill's entry on alors draws directly from Kelham and adds nothing beyond that source.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only shelf-source entry for alors, and it is minimal: the term is defined as Law French for "there; at that time; in that place," with attribution to Kelham's Law French Dictionary. This is consistent with the general function of alors in Old and Middle French — a temporal and locative adverb — carried directly into the technical vocabulary of Law French pleading without alteration of meaning. Burrill does not record any legal term of art built around alors, and no secondary definition or doctrinal content attaches to the word. Historical legal dictionaries beyond Burrill (Jacob's Law Dictionary, Tomlin's, Bouvier's) do not appear to carry a separate entry for alors, suggesting it was recognized as a basic vocabulary item rather than a concept requiring independent definition.