Definition
A Latin verb used in old English legal pleading meaning "to chase" or "to hunt." The term appears in the negative form *non chasiavit* ("he did not chase") as a plea or traverse in actions involving hunting rights or related trespasses. It belongs to the Law Latin vocabulary of medieval and early modern English common law, employed in formal pleadings to deny the act of chasing game.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal records — plea rolls, Year Books, and early common law reports — where Law Latin was the standard language of pleading. Researchers working in those sources should recognize *chasiare* and its conjugated forms as verb forms denoting the act of chasing, particularly in the context of forest law, hunting rights, and related trespass actions. The negative plea *non chasiavit* functions as a general denial of the hunting act alleged, and understanding its role as a traverse is essential to reading such pleadings correctly. Because the term is archaic and jurisdictionally confined to the English common law tradition, it will not appear in American legal sources except in antiquarian or historical legal writing. Researchers should also be alert to variant spellings, as Law Latin in manuscript sources was not standardized.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only substantive dictionary treatment located in the corpus, and its entry is spare: it identifies *chasiare* as Law Latin, defines it as "to chase," and supplies the single illustrative phrase *non chasiavit* with a citation to T. Jones 21 (Sir Thomas Jones's reports of common law cases from the late seventeenth century). The brevity of the entry reflects the term's narrow procedural function — it was a verb of pleading, not a term of art carrying doctrinal weight. Historical dictionaries generally do not expand on it beyond this mechanical definition. Researchers should not expect richer treatment in other historical sources; the term's significance lies in its recognizability within plea documents rather than in any substantive legal doctrine it carries.
Jurisdictional Note
Strictly an English common law term. No American legal usage has been identified. Relevant only to research in English legal history, forest law, and medieval or early modern plea records.