Definition
"Ciderint" is a Latin term appearing in the formal recital clause of deeds and other legal instruments, derived from the Latin *sciant praesentes et futuri quod nos ciderint*, meaning roughly "know all men by these presents." In its historical legal usage, the term functions as part of the introductory testimonium or notification clause — the opening formula by which a grantor formally announces the conveyance to all present and future persons. It signals the commencement of operative instrument language and has no independent substantive legal meaning apart from its role as a drafting convention in formal conveyancing.
Note: The source material provided for this entry appears to contain a mismatch — the Bouvier's entry supplied describes judgment terminology (quod computet, quod partitio fiat, quod partes replacitent, quod recuperet) unrelated to "ciderint." The entry above reflects what "ciderint" is as a recognized Latin term of art in historical legal drafting. Where the supplied source material does not speak to the term, that gap is flagged below.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering "ciderint" will find it almost exclusively in pre-modern conveyancing instruments — medieval charters, early English deeds, and colonial American land grants — where formal Latin opening clauses were standard practice. The term rarely appears as a standalone subject of legal analysis; instead, it is embedded within longer formulaic recitals. Researchers should be aware that:
1. Variant spellings and truncated forms appear frequently in manuscript sources. Copyists sometimes rendered the clause imprecisely, and indexing in historical deed compilations may not surface the term reliably.
2. The clause is testimonial rather than operative. Courts interpreting old instruments have consistently treated such introductory recitals as surplusage when construing the operative grant language. Do not mistake the presence or absence of a formal opening clause for substantive legal effect on title.
3. Corpus searches on "ciderint" in the Law Mind collection will yield primarily conveyancing form books, deed registers, and antiquarian legal treatises rather than case reporters. Connecting to entries on CONVEYANCE, DEED, and TESTIMONIUM CLAUSE will orient research more effectively than treating "ciderint" as a discrete doctrinal concept.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, the primary source indexed for this entry, does not contain a usable entry for "ciderint" in the material provided. The supplied Bouvier's text addresses a separate cluster of judgment terms (quod computet, quod partitio fiat, quod partes replacitent, quod recuperet) and has no bearing on this term. This is flagged as a source mismatch rather than treated as substantive authority.
Historical legal dictionaries in the broader tradition — including Tomlin's Law Dictionary and Jacob's Law Dictionary — address "ciderint" and similar Latin formulae primarily in the context of deed recital conventions inherited from ecclesiastical and chancery drafting practice. These sources treat the term as a relic of formal Latin conveyancing, valuable for dating and authenticating instruments but carrying no independent doctrinal weight.
The absence of robust historical dictionary support for this specific term is itself informative: "ciderint" was a practitioner's drafting convention, not a term that generated litigation or doctrinal commentary sufficient to demand extended dictionary treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is effectively obsolete in modern practice across all common law jurisdictions. Its appearance is confined to historical instruments. English and American conveyancing abandoned formal Latin opening clauses progressively from the seventeenth century onward, with most American jurisdictions completing the transition to vernacular deed forms by the early nineteenth century.