Definition
Biguity is not an independent legal term. It appears in legal sources only as a fragment of AMBIGUITY or as part of compound forms such as LATENT AMBIGUITY and PATENT AMBIGUITY. No standalone legal definition of "biguity" exists in the common law tradition or in statutory usage.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry from which this term surfaces does not define biguity as a discrete concept. The relevant passage is a cross-reference index entry bridging discussion of the Lex Junia Norbana and citations to cases defining LATENT AMBIGUITY — the word "biguity" appears only as the tail end of the headword AMBIGUITY as formatted in the original print layout.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering "biguity" as an apparent standalone headword in a digitized or indexed source should treat it as an OCR artifact, a truncated cross-reference, or a typographical artifact of the original print edition rather than a term of art. Nineteenth-century legal dictionaries, including Rapalje & Lawrence, were often printed in double-column format with tight leading. Automated digitization and keyword indexing of such sources frequently splits compound headwords at column breaks or page turns, producing phantom entries like "biguity" that have no independent legal content.
The substantive research target here is AMBIGUITY — specifically its latent and patent forms — and the cases cited in the Rapalje & Lawrence passage: the New Jersey (Halstead) reporters and the Ohio State reporters cited in connection with LATENT AMBIGUITY.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence (1883) is the sole source producing this entry. The passage does not define biguity; it is a print-format artifact. The dictionary's actual treatment of the relevant doctrine appears under AMBIGUITY, LATENT AMBIGUITY, and PATENT AMBIGUITY. No other historical legal dictionary — not Black's, not Bouvier, not Burrill — carries a headword "biguity." The absence is uniform and confirms that no independent doctrine attached to this term at any point in Anglo-American legal history.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: AMBIGUITY; LATENT AMBIGUITY; PATENT AMBIGUITY