Definition
Latin term from old English maritime law meaning to fasten to or to moor a vessel at a port or landing place. The term appears in medieval legal texts governing the use of harbors and sea-ports, where it described the physical act of a ship or boat making fast to a wharf, dock, or shore. Early translators rendered it simply as "to apply," though that rendering obscures the nautical specificity of the original.
The term also appears in the maxim: Applicatio est vita regulæ — "Application is the life of a rule." This usage is conceptually distinct from the maritime sense and belongs to the broader Latin vocabulary of legal maxims concerning the interpretation and operation of legal rules.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter applicare almost exclusively in two contexts: medieval English maritime law and Latin legal maxims. The two uses are unrelated in substance and should not be conflated.
In the maritime context, applicare is a term of art embedded in sources governing the rights and duties attached to ports of the sea (portus maris). Burrill's entry is the more useful of the historical sources for this purpose, as it supplies the Latin phrases that appear in the underlying primary sources — particularly the compound applicare et exonerare (to moor and unload), which signals the term's role in defining port jurisdiction and the obligations of vessel operators upon arrival. Researchers working in early English admiralty law, harbor rights, or the law of ports will find the term in Fleta and in plea rolls from the reign of Edward I, as Burrill cites. These are highly specialized sources and the term will rarely appear outside that register.
For the maxim Applicatio est vita regulæ, the research context is entirely different. That phrase belongs to the tradition of interpretive maxims, invoked in arguments about the practical operation of legal rules — the idea that a rule has no meaning apart from its application to facts. The citation to 2 Bulstrode 79 points to early seventeenth-century English case reporting. Researchers using this maxim in an interpretive argument should be aware that it appears in historical dictionaries as a secondary gloss, not as a freestanding doctrine with independent precedential force.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core maritime definition — to fasten to; to moor a vessel — and treat applicare as an archaic term of old English law with Latin roots (ad + plicare, to fold toward). Burrill's entry is substantially richer than either edition of Black's, providing the Latin phrases in which applicare appears in primary sources and citing specific plea roll records and Fleta. The Black's entries (both editions nearly identical) offer the maxim Applicatio est vita regulæ as an associated phrase, which Burrill omits. Neither Black's entry attempts to situate the maritime meaning in its jurisdictional or doctrinal context; Burrill is the necessary supplement for any substantive research use.
No modern legal dictionary carries this term as a live entry, which accurately reflects its status as a historical term without continuing operative use.
Jurisdictional Note
Applicare belongs to medieval English law and has no direct counterpart in American legal usage. Researchers in early English admiralty history or the pre-common-law law of ports will find it in English sources only.