Definition
To remove or displace a person from an office, position, or place. In legal usage, "amove" carries the specific sense of formal removal — stripping someone of a post, station, or role — rather than mere physical movement. It is closely associated with the Latin root *amovere* and appears most frequently in older common law materials discussing the removal of officers, trustees, or corporate members.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To set in motion; to stir up or excite.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To remove a person or thing from a position; to dismiss from an office or station. Marked as obsolete.
The gap here is significant. By the time Wiktionary records the word, its meaning has drifted toward agitation or excitement — nearly the opposite of the legal sense. Legal sources use "amove" exclusively in the removal or displacement sense that Webster's 1913 already flags as obsolete. A researcher encountering "amove" in a historical legal document should not rely on any modern general dictionary definition.
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Why It Matters in Research
"Amove" is an archaism. It does not appear in modern statutory or case law with any frequency, and researchers are most likely to encounter it in pre-20th century common law materials — particularly in the context of corporate law (removal of corporate officers or members), ecclesiastical law (removal of clergy), and equity jurisdiction (removal of trustees or guardians).
The primary research trap is the word's near-complete disappearance from active legal vocabulary while its Latin root, *amovere*, persists in some historical treatise discussions. If you encounter "amove" or "amoved" in a historical document, check whether the surrounding context concerns removal proceedings, the grounds for removal, or the authority of a body to dismiss a member — those are the operative questions the term typically introduces.
Cross-corpus connection: Researchers working with materials on *amotion* — the formal removal of a corporate officer or member — will find "amove" used as the verb form of that noun concept. The two terms operate in the same doctrinal neighborhood and often appear together in the same sources.
No meaningful jurisdictional variation exists because the term is not in active use in any jurisdiction. Its significance is purely historical and interpretive.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary defines "amove" tersely: to move from, remove; to take off or away; to withdraw — directing the reader immediately to the Latin form *amovere*. Burrill treats the term as self-evident once the Latin is understood, which reflects the assumption in 19th-century legal writing that practitioners had facility with law Latin.
Webster's 1913 aligns with Burrill on the removal-from-office sense and adds the important label "obsolete," confirming that the word had already passed out of general English use by the time of that edition. Wiktionary's divergent definition — "to stir up, excite" — reflects either a separate etymological thread or a survival of the word in a non-legal register where meaning has drifted substantially.
No major historical legal dictionary beyond Burrill gives the term an independent entry, which itself signals how narrowly the word was understood as a legal term of art rather than a term of general application. Jacob's Law Dictionary and Black's Law Dictionary (early editions) address the concept through *amotion* rather than giving "amove" its own treatment.
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