CONVENABLE

7 definitions found across Law Mind sources

CONVENABLEAuthored
The Law Mind • 756 words
Definition
An archaic English legal term meaning suitable, agreeable, convenient, or fitting. The word appears in early English legal texts and commentaries as a descriptive qualifier — characterizing an action, condition, arrangement, or obligation as proper and appropriate to the circumstances. It does not carry substantive doctrinal content of its own but functions as an evaluative adjective in older legal instruments and treatises. Its primary recorded usage in legal sources traces to Littleton's Tenures (§ 103), where it is employed to describe what is fitting or proper in the context of feudal tenure obligations. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Capable of being convened or assembled; fit; suitable or just. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Capable of being convened or assembled. The common English meaning emphasizes the capacity for assembly or convening — a procedural, organizational sense. The legal meaning in historical English law is narrower and more evaluative: suitability or fitness in the context of a legal obligation or condition. A researcher encountering "convenable" in an old English document should not interpret it as having anything to do with calling a meeting; it means the arrangement or obligation was proper and fitting under the relevant legal standard. ---
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially a fossil — it does not appear in modern legal usage and carries no live doctrinal significance. Its research value is purely interpretive: a researcher working in pre-modern English legal texts, Year Books, early equity proceedings, or documents touching feudal tenure may encounter it and need to know that it means suitable or fitting, not convocable. The principal trap is the common English meaning of "convenable" (capable of being convened), which is entirely misleading in the legal context. A reader unfamiliar with the term's legal sense might misread a feudal or tenure-related passage as addressing procedural assembly when the text is actually making a substantive point about whether an obligation or arrangement was proper. Rapalje & Lawrence places the term alongside related entries — CONVENE (a civil law term meaning to sue) and CONVENIENT (defined in several Virginia and South Carolina cases) — suggesting that period researchers treated this cluster of terms as related. If your research involves the meaning of "convenient" in an early American will or deed, the nearby Rapalje & Lawrence entries pointing to reported cases (including Virginia and South Carolina equity decisions) may be more immediately useful than "convenable" itself, which had already become archaic by the time American common law practice was being codified. Researchers in feudal tenure history, early English property law, or the history of Littleton's Tenures will find the term in that specific context. Outside that narrow band, it is unlikely to appear. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree precisely: "suitable; agreeable; convenient; fitting," each tracing the usage to Littleton § 103. There is no divergence among the sources on meaning. Black's first and second editions reproduce the definition identically, and Rapalje & Lawrence adds the gloss from Cowell's legal dictionary ("agreeable, convenient, or suitable"), confirming the term was recognized across the standard reference works of the period. What the historical dictionaries do not address is any evolution of the term or its application in reported cases. No case law is cited in connection with "convenable" itself — in contrast to the adjacent entry "convenient," for which Rapalje & Lawrence cites multiple reported decisions. This suggests "convenable" was already a purely archaic reference point even in 19th-century legal dictionaries, included for completeness rather than practical guidance. Cowell's Interpreter, referenced by Rapalje & Lawrence, is an early 17th-century English legal glossary and would be the oldest authoritative source for the term's legal meaning if deeper historical research is required. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Not applicable. No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry bears meaningful relevance to this term. The military encyclopedia entry for Courts-Martial and Convening Authority involves a superficially similar root word ("convening") but addresses an entirely unrelated modern legal concept. ---
Related Terms
CONVENIENT — the functional modern (and early American) successor term; see Rapalje & Lawrence entries for case law defining "convenient" in wills and deeds CONVENE — civil law term meaning to sue; adjacent in historical dictionaries TENURE — the primary doctrinal context in which "convenable" appears (Littleton's Tenures) LITTLETON'S TENURES — the source text most closely associated with the term's legal usage FITTING AND PROPER — modern plain-English equivalents in evaluative legal contexts
CONVENABLEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In old English law. Suitable; agreeable; convenient; fitting. D Litt. § 103.
CONVENABLEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
In old English law, election, or to prepare a new constitution. agreeable, convenient, or suitable.-Cowell. CONVENE.-A civil law term, signifying to sue. CONVENIENCES, OUTHOUSES, &C., (power to turnpike company to erect). 1 Dowl. & Ry. 202, 203. CONVENIENT, (defined). 1 Munf. (Va.) 110, 117; 1 McC. (S. C.) Ch. 148. (in a will). 6 Ves. 529; 8 Id. 554. CONVENIENT PLACE, (defined). 4 Zab. (N. J.) 49. CONVENIENT PRIVILEGE OF PASSING, (equivalent to way or road). 45 Me. 281. CONVENIENTLY, (in a will). 19 Ves. 390 (l). CONVENT.--The fraternity of an abbey or priory, as societas is the number of fellows in a college. A religious house, now regarded as a merely voluntary association, not importing civil death. In re Metcalfe, 33 L. J. Ch. 308. CONVENTICLE.-A private assembly or meeting for the exercise of religion. The word was first an appellation of reproach to the religious assemblies of Wycliffe in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., and was afterwards applied to a meeting of dissenters from the established church. As this word, in strict propriety, denotes an unlawful assembly, it cannot be justly applied to the assembling of persons in places of worship licensed according to the requisitions of law. Wharton. CONVENTIO.-An agreement or covenant. CONVENTIO IN UNUM.-The agreement between the two parties to a contract upon the sense of the contract proposed. It is an essential part of the contract, following the pollicitation or proposal emanating from the one, and followed by the consension or agreement of the other. If the second party does not assent to the proposal in the sense in which it is made, he is not bound by his assent unless his mistake is unreasonable. Conventio privatorum non potest publico juri derogare (Wing. 746): An agreement of private persons cannot affect public right. Conventio vincit legem (Dig. 2): An agreement overcomes law. 6 Taunt. 430. See CONVENTIO; CONVENTIONS, for further meanings. CONVENTIONAL ESTATES.-Freeholds not of inheritance or estates for life, which are created by the express acts of the parties, in contradistinction to those which are legal and arise from the operation and construction of law.
CONVENABLEmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
In old English Jaw. Suitable; agreeable; convenient; fitting. Litt. § 103.
CONVENABLEa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Capable of being convened or assembled.
CONVENABLEa.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Consistent; accordant; suitable; proper; as, convenable remedies. [Obs.] With his wod his work is convenable. Spenser.
convenableadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Capable of being convened or assembled. | fit; suitable or just

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