Definition
An obsolete Law French term meaning "behind" or "in the rear." Used in medieval English legal texts to indicate position, sequence, or temporal relation — something coming after, remaining behind, or being in arrears. The term appears in Law French legal instruments and plea rolls primarily from the medieval period and survives in English legal literature largely as a philological artifact. It is functionally equivalent to, and closely related to, the variant spellings *arere* and *arriere*, all drawn from the same Old French root.
The phrase *en arrere* carried the sense of "lately" or "heretofore" in certain usages, suggesting something that had recently occurred or was now past.
Common Confusion
ARRERE, ARERE, and ARRIERE are variant spellings of the same term and should not be treated as distinct legal concepts. Researchers should cross-check all three forms when searching manuscript indices or early printed law dictionaries. Additionally, ARRERE should not be conflated with ARREARS: the two share a conceptual ancestry but ARREARS is a developed term of art in debt and property law with specific legal consequences, while ARRERE is a relational descriptor without independent doctrinal weight.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering this term will almost always find it in medieval English legal manuscripts, Year Books, or early plea roll abstracts — not in modern legal instruments. Its primary research significance is orthographic: the same concept appears under at least three variant spellings (ARRERE, ARERE, ARRIERE), and medieval scribes were inconsistent. A search confined to one spelling will miss parallel occurrences under the others.
The temporal meaning ("lately," "heretofore") is especially easy to misread. A researcher expecting a purely spatial sense ("behind," "in the rear") may misinterpret passages where *en arrere* functions as a temporal marker signaling recent past action. Context is essential.
The connection to ARREARS deserves attention: the conceptual root — something remaining behind, unpaid or undone — runs directly from this term into the developed legal concept of arrears in debt and rent law. Researchers tracing the doctrinal history of arrears obligations should note this terminological lineage, even though ARRERE itself does not carry the technical debt-law meaning that ARREARS acquired.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill gives a minimal but precise entry: "L. Fr. Behind. *En arrere*; lately." He directs the reader to variant spellings and cites Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779) as the philological authority — a sensible cross-reference, as Kelham remains the standard reference for Law French vocabulary of this period. Burrill does not elaborate on legal contexts of use, treating the term as essentially a glossary item rather than a term of art.
The entry reflects a broader pattern in Burrill: Law French terms that functioned as positional or relational words in legal instruments receive brief treatment because they carried no independent legal doctrine. Their importance was grammatical and contextual rather than substantive.
No significant divergence exists among the handful of historical legal dictionaries that acknowledge the term; the meaning is stable and narrow. The historical record does not support reading ARRERE as a term of art with technical legal consequences independent of the instrument in which it appears.