Definition
In old English law, a table-companion or messmate — one who shared meals at the same table. The term derives from the Latin of the medieval legal tradition and appears in the context of household and institutional arrangements where proximity at table carried legal or social significance.
Why It Matters in Research
Commessalis is a minor technical Latin term appearing in medieval English legal texts and is unlikely to surface in any context outside of highly specialized historical research into household law, seigneurial arrangements, or the internal governance of institutions. Researchers encountering the term in a primary source should treat it as a marker of social and physical proximity — shared meals in medieval institutional or manor contexts could bear on questions of dependency, allegiance, or liability.
The term appears in Fleta, a late thirteenth-century legal treatise written during the reign of Edward I, making it a reliable signal that a document or passage is drawing on that period's household or institutional law. Researchers working with Fleta or comparable treatises should note that the Latin of these texts is often highly abbreviated and context-dependent; commessalis may appear where modern researchers would expect a phrase like "member of the household" or "dependent."
Because the term has no surviving counterpart in modern legal usage, it will not appear in post-medieval statutory or case law. Researchers who find it in secondary sources should trace the citation back to Fleta directly, as later legal dictionaries — including Burrill — simply relay the Fleta reference without elaboration.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only dictionary treatment identified for this term. Burrill defines commessalis as "a table-companion; a messmate," cites Fleta lib. 4, c. 8, § 8 as the primary authority, and moves immediately to an adjacent entry (Comminalty) without elaboration. This brevity is characteristic of Burrill's handling of obscure Latin terms with a single textual source: he records the meaning and the citation without attempting doctrinal synthesis, which is appropriate given that the term had no active legal life by the time of his writing.
No divergence among historical dictionary sources can be assessed here because commessalis appears in only one of the source dictionaries surveyed. The absence of the term from other major historical law dictionaries — including those of Bouvier and Black — is itself informative: it suggests the term was recognized as too archaic and too narrowly sourced to warrant independent treatment, even in comprehensive reference works.
Jurisdictional Note
Commessalis is a term of old English law with no established usage in American, Scottish, or Continental legal traditions. It is relevant only in the context of English medieval legal history.