ANNICULUS

4 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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ANNICULUSAuthored
The Law Mind • 710 words
Definition
A civil law term designating a child who is one year old. The technical precision of the term extends to the exact moment at which the designation applies: a child is considered anniculus on the three hundred and sixty-fifth day of life, provided that day has fairly begun, even if it has not yet ended. This rule reflects the civilian principle that a civil year is counted by days, not by moments of time.
Common Language
This is pure legal and civil law Latin with no meaningful counterpart in ordinary English. The COMMON LANGUAGE section is omitted.
Why It Matters in Research
ANNICULUS is a narrow technical term from Roman civil law, preserved in medieval common law treatises and absorbed into English legal writing primarily through Bracton. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in: — Civil law digests and their English translations, particularly discussions of age computation in inheritance, guardianship, and capacity questions. — Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, where the term appears in the context of age thresholds that triggered or extinguished legal rights. — Glossaries and Latin law dictionaries appended to older English legal treatises, where it may appear without explanation because the readership was assumed to know classical Latin. The research trap here is the underlying doctrine, not the word itself. The term encodes a specific rule of age calculation: that a period of time is complete when the final day has begun, not when it has ended. This dies inceptus pro completo habetur principle appears throughout historical legal analysis of limitations periods, infancy, and capacity — but the Latin phrase anniculus will not always signal it. Researchers working on age-related legal thresholds in historical sources should understand this computation rule as background doctrine even when the term is absent. Researchers working in American legal history will find the term essentially extinct in primary sources after the colonial period. It does not appear as an operative term in American statutes or reported cases. Its value in the Law Mind corpus is almost entirely definitional and contextual — helping researchers decode Latin passages in historical treatises rather than track a living legal concept.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement. All define anniculus as a child one year old, and Black's (both editions) and Burrill reproduce substantially the same passage from the Digest of Justinian (Dig. 50, 16, 132 and 134), which supplies the doctrinal precision: the three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth day suffices, and civil time is counted by days rather than moments. Calvin's lexicon is cited by Black's as a secondary source for the term. Burrill's entry is the most substantive, placing the term within the civil law context and citing Bracton, which confirms the term's transit into English legal usage. Rapalje & Lawrence is terse — a bare identification — but consistent with the others. None of the historical dictionaries discuss the broader principle of dies inceptus pro completo habetur in connection with this term, even though the Digest passage they quote is a direct illustration of it. This is the gap researchers should note: the dictionaries treat anniculus as a curiosity of civil law vocabulary rather than as a window into a computational principle with wider application.
Jurisdictional Note
The term belongs to Roman civil law and has no independent legal life in common law jurisdictions. Its appearance in English legal texts is attributable to Bracton's heavy reliance on civil law sources and to the tradition of Latin legal scholarship. It carries no operative meaning in modern American or English law.
Related Terms
Infancy — the broader common law status of persons below the age of legal majority Full age — the threshold concept against which minority and infancy are measured Dies inceptus pro completo habetur — the civil law maxim that a day begun is counted as completethe rule underlying the anniculus computation Pupillus — civil law term for a child under guardianshipoften appearing in the same textual contexts Minority — the modern common law counterpart to the civil law framework of age incapacity Bracton — the English treatise through which civil law terminologyincluding this termentered English legal writing
ANNICULUSmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A child a year old. Cal- 307. vin. Anniculus trecentesimo sexagesimo- quinto die dicitur, incipiente plane non exacto die, quia annum civiliter non ad momenta temporum sed ad dies numeramur. We call a child a year old on the three hundred and sixty-fifth day, when the day is fairly begun but not ended, be- cause we calculate the civil year not by mo- ments, but by days. Dig. 50, 16, 134; Id. 132; Calvin.
ANNICULUSmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
-A child one year old. ANNIVERSARY.-An aunual day, in old ecclesiastical law, set apart in memory of a deceased person. Also called "year day" or "mind day."-Spel. Gloss. ANNO DOMINI.-In the year of our Lord. Commonly abbreviated to A. D., and used in connection with Arabic or Roman figures, or words, to denote any particular year of the Christian era. ANNONA.-Grain; food. An old English and civil law term to denote a yearly contribution by one person to the support of another. ΑΝΝΟΤΑTION. - LATIN: ad, to, and notare, to mark. (1) A remark, note or commentary on some passage of a book, intended to illustrate its meaning.-Webster. (2) In the civil law, the reply of the prince to questions put to him by private persons respecting some doubtful point of law. Bouvier. ANNOUNCED, (finding of court, in practice act). 56 Ind. 298. Q. B. D. 658. ANNUAL EMOLUMENT, (in telegraph act). 1 ANNUAL INCOME, (in a will). 4 Abb. (N. Y.) N. Cas. 317. ANNUAL OFFICE, (what is). 4 Dill. (U. S.) 190. ANNUAL PROFITS, (what are, in real property law). 2 Atk. 490. 104. (devise to pay debts out of). 1 Vern. (in trust deed). 1 P. Wms. 419. (of canal company). 9 Barn. & C. 810. ANNUAL RENT, (in a lease). 5 Barn. & C. 482. ANNUAL SUM, (charged upon land by will). 1 Bland (Md.) 296. ANNUAL VALUE, (in dower). Penn. (N. J.) 895. ANNUALLY, (in a bond). 6 East 512. (Pa.) 474. (in a statute). 16 Gray (Mass.) 497. (in a will). 4 McCord (S. C.) 59. (interest to be paid, in a will). 5 Binn. (note for 8 years, interest payable). 6 Wheel. Am. C. L. 230. (officer elected, how long he serves). Ang. & A. Corp. 75-78; 6 Cow. (N. Y.) 23; 1 Paige (N. Y.) 595. 163. (payment of interest). 6 Gray (Mass.) ANNUALLY, AT TWO HALF YEARLY PAYMENTS, (I agree to pay). 4 Wheel. Am. C. L. 36. ANNUALLY CHOSEN, (respecting corporate officers). 6 Conn. 428; 2 Gill d & J. (Md.) 254; 8 Mass. 275; 9 Johns. (N. Y.) 148; 5 Id. 366; 1 McCord (S. C.) 41; 2 Bro. P. C. 289, 294. ANNUALLY, DURING WIDOWHOOD, (annuity payable). South. (N. J.) 144. ANNUALLY, WITH INTEREST, (note payable). 7 Greenl. (Me.) 48; 2 Mass. 568; 3 Id. 221; 8 Id. 455. ANNUITY.-LATIN: annuus, yearly. The right to the yearly payment of a certain sum of money, granted or bequeathed by one person to another. 1. Personal and real. - When it charges only the person and personal representatives of the grantor, or is granted out of or charged on personal property, it is a personal annuity. When it issues out of land, it is a real annuity or rent-charge, and may be limited for life, in fee, or for years, in the same way as land. In America, the personal annuity seems to be the only kind known. 2. Perpetual, in fee, &c.-A personal annuity may either be perpetual, for life, or for years, and a perpetual annuity may be limited either to the heirs or the executors of the grantee; in the former case it is an annuity in fee. When limited to the heirs of the body of the grantee it is an annuity in fee simple conditional, because the Statute de Donis (q. v.) does not apply to personal annuities. (Co. Litt. 20a, 144b; Wats. Comp. Eq. 8 et seq. See FEE.) A personal annuity in fee descends to the heir of the grantee on his death intestate, but it is nevertheless personal estate, and therefore would not pass under a devise of real estate. ANNUITY, (an incorporeal hereditament). Reeve Dom. Rel. 19. (distinguished from "legacy"). 14 Vr. (N. J.) 42; 7 Ves. 89. (distinguished from "income"). 4 Bradf. (N. Y.) 151. (distinguished from "rent-charge"). 23 Barb. (N. Y.) 216. (devise of). 2 McCord (S. C.) Ch. 281; Cro. Jac. 144. ANNUL.-In English law, to annul a judicial proceeding is to deprive it of its operation, either retrospectively or only as to future transactions. Thus, annulling an adjudication in bankruptcy puts an end to the proceedings, without invalidating any acts previously done by the trustee or the court, and makes the property of the bankrupt revert to him, unless the court otherwise orders. Bankruptcy Act, 1869, 81.
ANNICULUSmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
Lat. In the civil law. Annua nec debitum judex non separat Of one year's age; a child of a year old. ipsum. A judge [or court] does not divide Bract. fol. 63 b. Anniculus-trecentesimo annuities nor debt. 8 Co. 52. 1 Salk. sexagesimo-quinto die dicitur, incipiente 36, 65. Debt and annuity cannot be planè non exacto die, quia annum civiliter divided, or apportioned by a court. A non ad momenta temporum, sed ad dies maxim of the old law, expressed in a hexnumeramus; a person is said to be a year ameter line. See 1 Story's Eq. Jur. old, on the three hundred and sixty-fifth § 480. day [after birth], when it has clearly begun, and before it has passed, because we reckon a year civilly not by moments of time, but by days. Dig. 50. 16. 134. See Id. 132. Calv. Lex.

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