ATTINGERE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ATTINGEREAuthored

The Law Mind • 738 words

Definition

A Latin term from the civil law meaning "to touch," "to reach to," "to be allied to," or "to be connected with." In legal usage, attingere describes the relationship between persons bound by kinship or affinity — that is, persons who are "touched" or "reached" by ties of blood or marriage. The term appears in Roman law texts and in Bracton's treatment of English common law to express whether a given person stands in a recognized familial relationship to another.

The operative legal question it answers is whether two persons are connected — cognatione (by blood) or affinitate (by marriage) — for purposes of law that turn on that relationship, such as rules governing testimony, inheritance, guardianship, or prohibited degrees of marriage.

Common Confusion

Attingere is the infinitive form. Researchers encountering attingit or attingunt in source texts are reading inflected verb forms of the same root, not separate terms. The related noun attinens (kinsman, one who "reaches" or is connected) appears in parallel passages and should not be confused with the verbal construction. Additionally, attingere should be distinguished from the simpler tetigit ("he touched"), which Burrill notes derives from the same root tangere but carries different contextual weight in certain service and tenure formulas.

Why It Matters in Research

Attingere is not a term with ongoing doctrinal life in modern Anglo-American law. Its research value is almost entirely historical and interpretive: it appears in Latin-language primary sources, particularly the Digest, Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, and related civil and canon law texts, where relationship-based legal rules are stated in this vocabulary.

Researchers working in medieval English law, Roman law reception, or ecclesiastical law on prohibited degrees will encounter attingere in passages that determine whether a person qualifies — or is disqualified — by reason of familial connection. Misreading the term or its inflections can distort the meaning of a passage, particularly when distinguishing cognation (blood relationship) from affinity (relationship by marriage), two categories that carried distinct legal consequences.

The partial entry in Burrill also gestures toward an entirely separate usage — the land law formula involving "attorn the service of a tenant" — which appears to be a transcription artifact or truncation in the source. Researchers should not conflate these two strands. The tenure-related usage belongs to the vocabulary of attornment, not to the family-relationship sense of attingere.

Because attingere is a term of Roman and civil law absorbed into early English legal writing through Bracton rather than through parliamentary or common law development, it does not vary by English local custom or evolve through case law in the way common law terms do. Researchers should treat it as fixed Latin technical vocabulary and consult the Digest and Bracton directly when precision is required.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary is the principal English-language legal dictionary source for this term, and its entry — though truncated — provides the essential civil law meaning and illustrative quotations. Burrill draws on two primary sources: Digest 47.10.5 (the lex on iniuria, which addresses persons connected by relationship or affinity) and Bracton's folio references (fols. 72 and 150), where the term appears in the context of persons who may or may not be related by affinity.

No entry for attingere appears in Black's Law Dictionary or Bouvier's Law Dictionary in their standard editions, reflecting the term's status as a civil law Latinism that did not acquire independent doctrinal standing in common law jurisdictions. The absence of the term from those sources is itself informative: it signals that attingere entered English legal writing through the civilian and Bractonine tradition rather than through the mainstream development of common law doctrine.

Burrill's entry is useful as a pointer but should be treated as a starting reference, not a terminus. The truncation of the entry — ending mid-sentence on a passage about attornment — suggests a printing or transcription error in the edition; researchers relying on Burrill for this term should verify against the original sources cited.

Jurisdictional Note

Attingere as a live legal term has no modern jurisdictional variation; it is a Latin civil law term encountered only in historical sources. Its interpretive significance is greatest in jurisdictions with civilian heritage (Scotland, Louisiana, Quebec, South Africa) and in historical research on English ecclesiastical and early common law.

ATTINGEREmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

Lat. [from ad, to, and tangere, to touch.] In the civil law. To touch; to reach to; to be allied to; to be united or connected with. Cognatione affinitateve attinget; shall be connected by relationship or affinity. Dig. 47. 10. 5. pr. Qui aliqua affinitate non attingunt; who are not related by any affinity. Bract. fols. 72, 150. The simple tetigit, from tan-nare servitium tenentis; to attorn the sergere, is used in Inst. 3. 1. 8. ATTORNARE, Atturnare. L. Lat. [L. Fr. attorner; according to Spelman, from tourner, to turn, to exchange; to give one thing in place of another.] In feudal law. To attorn; to transfer or turn over. Attorwill, attorned himself to him, and did service to him. Id. fol. 41. In quibus casibus attornabitur, velit nolit ; in which cases he shall be attorned, whether he will or not. Id. fol. 82. Homagium contra voluntatem hominis attornari non poterit; homage cannot be attorned against the will of the vassal. Fleta, lib. 3, c. 16, § 36. Attornare rem; to attorn or turn over a thing, as money and goods; i. e. to assign or appropriate them to some particular use and service. Kenn. Par. Ant. 283. Cowell. vice of a tenant. Bract. fol. 81 b, 82. Et In old practice. To touch or reach to; attornat servitium firmarii; and attorns the to amount to. Quæ summam quadraginta service of the fermor or lessee. Id. fol. solidorum attingunt, vel eam excedunt; 178. Possum attornare tenentem meum ; which amount to, or exceed the sum of I may attorn my tenant. Id fol. 169. Cum forty shillings. Reg. Orig. 145. Attinipse, de voluntate sua, se attornaverit ei, et ei gunt se; they amount to. Yelv. 80. Quæ fecerit servitium; where he, of his own in toto se attingunt; which in the whole amount to. See In toto se attingunt. Attingentia; amounting to. Hob. 133.