Definition
An obsolete Scots law term, recorded as an early form of "arrest." The term appears in historical Scottish legal records and glossaries as a variant spelling or archaic rendering of the concept of arrest — the detention or restraint of a person or property by legal authority. Its precise procedural scope within Scots law practice mirrored the broader arrest function: the seizure of a person to answer a legal process, or the attachment of property to satisfy or secure a claim.
Common Confusion
ARREIST / ARREST / ARRESTMENT: Researchers encountering this term in historical Scots sources should not conflate it with the modern English "arrest" (detention of a person by law enforcement) nor with the distinct Scots law remedy of "arrestment" (a diligence attaching moveable property in the hands of a third party). All three concepts share a common root but operate differently in practice. ARREIST is the archaic spelling; arrestment is the live Scots procedural term for property attachment; arrest in modern usage refers primarily to personal detention.
Why It Matters in Research
The principal research value of ARREIST is as a spelling variant alert. Researchers working in early Scottish legal manuscripts, court records, or glossaries — particularly pre-Union (pre-1707) sources — may encounter this form and need to recognize it as cognate with "arrest" rather than as a distinct legal concept. Burrill flags it precisely for this reason: it is the kind of archaic form that can derail a search if unrecognized.
The term appears in Skene's *De Verborum Significatione* (published 1597), one of the foundational glossaries of Scots legal terminology, under the entry "Iter." This places ARREIST firmly in the pre-Union Scots legal vocabulary. Skene's glossary is a primary source for understanding how early modern Scots lawyers used and defined legal terms, and any researcher using that work should expect variant spellings of this kind throughout.
There is no evidence that ARREIST carried a meaning materially different from "arrest" in its Scottish context. Its interest is orthographic and historical, not doctrinal.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is spare: it identifies ARREIST as "an old Scotch form of arr[est]," citing Skene's *De Verborum Significatione*, sub voce *Iter*. Burrill offers no further elaboration, which itself signals that the term had no independent legal life by the time of his writing — it was already a curiosity of historical glossography rather than a term of active practice.
Skene's *De Verborum Significatione* (1597) is the ultimate source authority here. Skene compiled that work to explain the meaning of terms appearing in older Scots statutes and records, making it the natural habitat for a spelling variant like ARREIST. Researchers needing to go deeper should consult Skene directly.
No other major historical law dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus appear to carry this entry, consistent with its status as a purely archaic Scots form of limited general circulation.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is exclusively Scots in origin and has no reception in English common law or American law. It is relevant only to research in pre-modern Scottish legal sources.