Definition
In old English law, the rigging, tackle, and outfitting of a ship — the ropes, cables, pulleys, and other gear necessary to operate a vessel's sails and masts. The term encompasses the functional equipment that makes a ship seaworthy and operable, as distinguished from the hull or the cargo it carries.
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Why It Matters in Research
ATTILE is an archaic Latin term drawn from medieval English legal texts and has no operative presence in modern maritime or admiralty law. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-modern English sources — primarily in legal treatises, ship inventories, admiralty proceedings, or property disputes involving vessels from roughly the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries. Its significance today is purely interpretive: when reading old English records or early treatises touching on ship ownership, seizure, forfeiture, or salvage, understanding that attile refers to the rigging and tackle — not the vessel itself or its cargo — is essential to parsing the scope of what was at issue.
The term appears in Fleta, the thirteenth-century legal treatise, cited by Bouvier, which places it squarely in the medieval English legal context. Researchers working with that corpus or with Cowell's Interpreter (the standard glossary of law terms from 1607, cited across all source dictionaries) will find attile used in this consistent, narrow sense.
No meaningful jurisdictional variation exists because the term predates modern admiralty doctrine. Modern research into ship tackle and rigging equipment will use entirely different vocabulary — "ship's gear," "tackle," or specific equipment terminology under the general maritime law of the relevant jurisdiction.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in complete agreement. Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's all define attile as rigging or tackle, each tracing the term to Cowell. Bouvier adds the reference to Fleta, providing the earliest traceable doctrinal anchor. There is no divergence among the sources, no evolution of meaning across editions, and no recorded ambiguity. This uniformity reflects the term's status as a fossil word: it entered the legal dictionaries from a single historical stream and never developed beyond it.
What the historical sources do not address is how attile functioned in legal proceedings — whether, for example, the rigging was treated as a fixture of the vessel for purposes of sale or seizure, or whether it could be separately conveyed or attached. That operational question is left unresolved in the dictionary literature and would require direct engagement with the primary sources, particularly Fleta and Cowell, to pursue further.
Burrill identifies the term as Law Latin (L. Lat.), confirming its origin as a term of legal art rather than ordinary English maritime vocabulary.
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