CIPLES

Definition

"Ciples" is not an independent legal term. The entry appears in historical legal dictionaries as a truncated or corrupted form of "PRINCIPLES" — specifically as a fragment of the Bouvier's Law Dictionary entry for maxims beginning with "Principi-," where the typographical heading "CIPLES" functions as a continuation marker for the broader PRINCIPLES entry rather than a standalone defined term. Researchers encountering "ciples" in a historical legal source should treat it as a cross-reference artifact, directing attention to PRINCIPLES and the associated Latin maxims organized under that heading. ---

Common Confusion

Researchers should not confuse this fragment with any of the following: - PRINCIPLES (the substantive entry to which this heading belongs) - PRINCIPAL (a distinct and fully independent legal term referring to a party, employer, or the primary obligor in a transaction) - PRINCIPIUM (the Latin noun for "beginning" or "first principle," which appears in the maxims cited above) The visual similarity between "ciples" and the suffix of "principles" or "disciples" carries no independent legal meaning. ---

Why It Matters in Research

This entry exists as a navigational caution. Bouvier's Law Dictionary, like other multi-volume historical references, organized related Latin maxims under grouped headings that were sometimes split across pages or volumes. The fragment "CIPLES" — the tail end of "PRINCIPLES" — could appear as a running header, a continuation heading, or a search index artifact in digitized or scanned editions. A researcher encountering this fragment in a corpus search should not treat it as a term of art but should instead redirect to the PRINCIPLES entry, where the substantive maxims are collected. Three specific maxims appear in the source material immediately adjacent to this fragment heading: 1. Principiis obsta — "Oppose beginnings." A precautionary maxim counseling early resistance to encroachments before they become entrenched. Cited in Branch's Principia. 2. Principiorum non est ratio — "There is no reasoning of principles." The idea that first principles are axiomatic and not subject to further derivation or justification. Cited at 2 Bulstrode 239. 3. Principium est potissima pars cujusque rei — "The beginning is the most powerful part of a thing." A maxim applied in contexts where the origin or commencement of a legal transaction, instrument, or proceeding controls its character. Cited at 10 Coke 49. The maxim Prior tempore, potior jure — "He who is first in time is preferred in right" — also appears in this cluster and is substantively significant in property, lien priority, and recording act contexts. Corpus researchers using keyword or OCR-based searches of digitized historical dictionaries should be aware that entries organized around Latin root words are especially prone to this kind of split-heading fragmentation. A search for "ciples" in isolation will surface this artifact without the definitional content it was meant to introduce. ---

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's Law Dictionary does not treat "ciples" as a defined term. The appearance of the heading in the source material reflects an organizational convention of grouping Latin maxims alphabetically by their opening word, with "Principi-" entries clustered together. The heading "CIPLES" is the visible residue of "PRINCIPLES" serving as a section organizer rather than a term requiring its own definition. No divergence across historical dictionaries is possible here, as this is a single-source artifact with no parallel treatment in other reference works. Black's Law Dictionary and Wharton's Law Lexicon organize Latin maxims similarly but do not reproduce this fragmentation in their indexing. ---

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