COL - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

COLAuthored

The Law Mind • 668 words

Definition

"Col" does not function as a standalone legal term of art. In the Law Mind corpus, the sequence "col" appearing in historical legal dictionary sources is an artifact of typographic truncation or column/page-break formatting in older printed legal dictionaries, not a discrete legal concept. Burrill's Law Dictionary entry fragment beginning with "col" is mid-text, carrying over content related to collateral consanguinity and related doctrines rather than defining "col" itself.

Researchers encountering "col" as an apparent headword in historical legal dictionary transcriptions should treat it as a corrupted or truncated rendering of a longer term. The most likely candidates based on surrounding context in the Burrill fragment are:

1. COLLATERAL — as in collateral consanguinity, the relationship between persons who share a common ancestor but are not descended from one another. The Burrill fragment explicitly contrasts this with lineal consanguinity.

2. COLLATERAL WARRANTY — referenced in the fragment ("a younger brother released to his father's disseisor with warranty"), this was a common law doctrine by which a warranty running collaterally could bind an heir to defend title even without privity of descent.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A dip on a mountain ridge between two peaks; also, a pressure region between two anticyclones and two low-pressure regions.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A short ridge connecting two higher elevations or mountains; the pass over such a ridge.

The geographic term "col" has no legal meaning and no relationship to any legal doctrine. Its appearance as a dictionary entry in a legal research context is entirely the product of OCR error, typographic truncation, or page-break fragmentation in historical source digitization.

Common Confusion

"Col" is frequently generated as a false headword when historical legal dictionaries are digitized, because the word "Collateral" or "Colored" or other longer terms beginning with those letters appear at the top of a column or page, and optical character recognition or manual transcription captures only the visible stub. Researchers should not treat "col" as a term of art and should instead locate the complete headword in the original printed source.

Why It Matters in Research

The presence of "col" as an apparent entry illustrates a significant hazard in working with digitized historical legal dictionaries: truncated headwords created by column breaks, page breaks, or damaged margins. Burrill's Law Dictionary, like many nineteenth-century legal reference works, was typeset in dense double-column format. When these pages are scanned and processed, the result is sometimes a string of text beginning mid-word or mid-sentence that appears to be a new entry.

The contextual clues in the Burrill fragment — references to Bell's Dictionary, Blackstone's Commentaries, Kent's Commentaries, Story's reports, lineal versus collateral consanguinity, and the collateral warranty hypothetical — point firmly toward an entry on collateral consanguinity or collateral warranty. Researchers working with this material should cross-reference the full printed text or a more complete digital edition before concluding that any particular doctrine is or is not treated by the source.

When working with the Law Mind corpus more broadly, treat any headword of three letters or fewer that lacks a syntactically complete definition as a candidate for truncation review rather than a genuine entry.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary (1860) is the sole source material provided, and the fragment does not support treatment of "col" as a defined term. The visible content addresses collateral consanguinity — the relationship between persons sharing a common ancestor without lineal descent from one another — and references Blackstone's Commentaries at 2 Bl. Com. 204–205, Kent's Commentaries at 4 Kent's Com. 469, and Bell's Dictionary. These citations are consistent with standard nineteenth-century treatment of consanguinity doctrine, which distinguished lineal descent (parent to child) from collateral relationship (sibling to sibling, or cousin relationships) for purposes of inheritance, warranty, and property law.

No historical legal dictionary in the Law Mind corpus defines "col" as an independent legal term.

COLmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

(308) idiot or furious person." Bell's Dict. voc. Idiots. See 6 Bell's Appeal Cases, 241. (309) Bl. Com. 204, 205. It is thus distinBl. Com. 301. 4 Kent's Com. 469. Story, guished from lineal consanguinity, in which J. 1 Sumner's R. 262. As where a youngthe relatives are descended the one from er brother released to his father's disseisor the other. Id. 204. See Lineal consanwith warranty, this was collateral to the guinity. elder brother. Litt. sect. 705, 707. So where a son purchased lands in fee, and his father disseised him, and aliened to another with warranty, and died, this was a collateral warranty to the son. Id. sect. 704, 705. See 2 Hilliard's Real Prop. 361, 362. U. S. Digest, Collateral warranty. See Lineal warranty. Lineal consanguinity being usually represented by a perpendicular or right line, (linea recta,) in which the kindred are ranked relatively, one above or below the other, as father, son, grandson, collateral consanguinity is properly denoted by one or more transverse lines, crossing this, or proceeding obliquely from it on the side (à latere) upon which the kindred are ranked in their order. See Dig. 38. 10. 9. 10. (310) law. Collation of goods. A bringing together of goods or property into a common fund; especially of property received of a testator by way of advancement, for the purpose of a more equitable division among the heirs. Dig. 37. 6. 1. Cooper's Justin. Inst. Notes, *574, 575. Cod. 6. 20. This term has been applied, in the common law, to the bringing of any portion or sum of money advanced by a father to a son or daughter, into hotchpot, or common fund, in order to have an equal share with the other children, of his personal estate when he dies, in pursuance of the statute of distributions. Tomlins. 2 Bl. Com. 517. 4 Kent's Com. 419. 1 Sumner's R. 421. See Hotchpot. In Louisiana, this return of property to the mass of the succession is termed collation, or, in French, rapport. Civil Code of Louisiana, Art. 1305-1367. 4 Kent's Com. 419, note. (311) humerale, quo induuntur servientes ad legem.) Spelman.