COR

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

CORAuthored
The Law Mind • 816 words
Definition
Cor is a Latin term meaning "heart." In legal contexts, the word appears almost exclusively as a prefix or particle in compound Latin phrases of procedural and pleading significance, most notably in coram (meaning "before" or "in the presence of"), which generates the operative legal terms coram nobis, coram vobis, and coram non judice. Taken alone as a standalone legal term, cor has no independent doctrinal content in the Anglo-American tradition; its legal life is derivative — it anchors meaning in the compound forms that dominate the common law vocabulary of jurisdiction and error correction. Separately, cor appears in older texts as a unit of measurement derived from Hebrew usage (the homer), occasionally referenced in ecclesiastical or biblical property disputes but carrying no technical legal meaning in common law or equity proceedings.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An expression of surprise (British colloquial exclamation). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A Hebrew measure of capacity; a homer. Also written "core." The gap between common usage and legal usage is nearly total. Neither the colloquial exclamation nor the biblical unit of measure has any foothold in legal doctrine. A researcher encountering cor in a legal text should treat it as a Latin particle — almost certainly a fragment of a compound phrase — rather than as an independent term with its own substantive meaning.
Common Confusion
Cor is routinely encountered as an incomplete rendering of coram, the ablative form of the same Latin root, meaning "in the presence of" or "before." Researchers working with manuscript records, abbreviated court documents, or early printed reports may find cor used as shorthand where coram is meant. The distinction matters: coram is the operative word in jurisdictional phrases such as coram nobis (before us, i.e., the same court) and coram non judice (before one who is not a judge), which carry specific and consequential legal meanings. Treating a truncated cor as a standalone term rather than recognizing it as part of a coram construction will send research in the wrong direction.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers in the Law Mind corpus will encounter cor most often in one of three situations: (1) as a particle within a Latin maxim or compound phrase requiring expansion; (2) in heavily abbreviated medieval or early modern records where coram has been shortened; or (3) in ecclesiastical or canon law materials where the Hebrew measure occasionally surfaces in disputes over tithes, glebe land, or ancient endowments. The Burrill entry associated with this term in the source material is actually a copyhold passage — a reminder that historical dictionary databases may return cor as a search fragment hitting words like "incorporeal," "record," or similar strings. Researchers should verify that a retrieved passage is actually defining cor and not simply containing the letter sequence within a longer word. For jurisdictional research, the compound forms built on cor (particularly the coram family) are the productive research targets. Coram nobis, in particular, underwent significant doctrinal development in American courts distinct from its English origins, and that divergence is not well captured in the older English dictionaries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary does not contain a freestanding entry for cor as an independent legal term. The source material returned under this heading is a copyhold definition — a retrieval artifact rather than a substantive entry on cor itself. This is instructive: it confirms that cor, in isolation, was not treated by nineteenth-century legal lexicographers as a term warranting its own definition. Its legal significance was understood to reside entirely in its compound forms. The Latin dictionary tradition (Lewis and Short) is more illuminating than the legal dictionaries here. Cor as "heart" generated a rich metaphorical vocabulary in Roman law — animus, mens, and cor were sometimes used interchangeably in discussions of intent and will — but this usage did not carry forward into common law doctrine in any technically precise way.
Jurisdictional Note
Cor itself has no jurisdiction-specific legal meaning. The compound forms derived from it — particularly coram nobis — vary significantly between English and American usage and between state and federal practice in the United States. Researchers pursuing those terms should consult jurisdiction-specific authorities rather than relying on general common law treatments.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Coram Nobis; Coram Non Judice; Latin Legal Maxims; Copyhold (for the Burrill passage associated with this retrieval).
Related Terms
Coram — the operative compound form; "in the presence of" Coram nobis — writ to correct error of fact by the same court Coram vobis — writ directed to a different court Coram non judice — action taken before a tribunal without jurisdiction; void Animus — intent; related Latin concept in legal contexts Homer — the biblical unit of measure (common usage cognate) Copyhold — subject of the Burrill passage returned under this heading
CORmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
(379) In a larger sense, copyhold is said to import every customary tenure, (that is, every tenure depending on the particular custom of a manor,) as opposed to free socage, or freehold, which may now (since the abolition of knight-service) be considered as the general or common law tenure of the country. 1 Steph. Com. 210. See 1 Crabb's Real Prop. 606, § 765, et seq. Burton's Real Prop. ch. vii. Watkins and Scriven on Copyholds. **Copyhold is lineally descended from the ancient tenure of pure villenage, the will of the lord by which the villein held having become, in the course of time, so far modified and controlled by custom, as to allow the tenant to hold his lands, on performance of the required services, in spite of any determination of the lord's will. 2 Bl. Com. 95. 1 Steph. Com. 201, 210. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 39. Copyhold is, in other words, villenage divested of all its slavish incidents. Crabb's Hist. Eng. Law, 536. Villeins appears to have been called custumarii tenentes (customary tenants) in the fourth year of Edw. I.; tenants per roll solonque le volunt seigneur, (tenants by roll according to the will of the lord,) in 42 Edw. III. 35; tenants per le verge, (by the verge,) in 14 Hen. IV. 34; and copyholders in 1 Hen. V. 11. Co. Litt. 58. 3 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 312, 313. COPYHOLDER, Copiholder. [L. Fr. tenant per copie de court rol.] In English law. A tenant by copyhold; so called from the copy of the court roll delivered to him by the steward of the manor, as the evidence of his title. Co. Litt. 58 a. Litt. sect. 75. 2 Bl. Com. 95. Otherwise called copy-tenants. Brownl. part 2, 77. observed that this was the technical sense in which the term had been used for ages. 4 Burr. 2303, 2396. A copyright may be had in maps, charts, prints, cuts, engravings and musical compositions, as well as in books. 2 Kent's Com. 373. The copyright of a map is an exclusive right to the multiplication of copies for the benefit of the author or his assigns, disconnected from the plate, or any other physical existence. It is an incorporeal right to print and publish the map, or, as said by Lord Mansfield, in Millar v. Taylor, "a property in notion, and has no corporeal, tangible substance." Nelson, J. 14 Howard's R. 530. See Curtis on Copyright. United States Digest, Copyright. (380) resident); that being the style of the court. 1 Arch. Pr. 234, 276. 2 Tidd's Pr. 1136. See Coram ipso rege. Writs of error to correct the judgments of other courts, (such as the Common Pleas,) are said to be coram vobis; the record and process being stated to remain "before you," (quæ coram vobis resident,) that is, before the justices of the court. Id. 1137. This description seems to express more accurately the distinction between writs coram nobis and coram vobis than that which represents the former as lying to the same court in which the judgment was given; and as lying for errors in fact; neither of which features seem to be peculiar to it. Id. 1136, 1137. 2 Impey's Pr. K. B. 811. 1 Arch. Pr. 234, 276. 2 Saund. 100, 101 a, note. See Coram vobis. But see 3 Maryland R. 325. 1 Hempstead's R. 62. ( 381 ) ers of these houses of common right, (unless the foundation was in frankalmoign,) and in this way became frequently due to the king.* Spelman. Termes de la Ley. See Barringt. Obs. Stat. 80, note [y]. It was a species of incorporeal hereditament, but is now obsolete. 2 Bl. Com. 40. 1 Id. 283. 2 Inst. 630. 1 Crabb's Real Prop. 252, § 259. Crabb's Hist. Eng. Law, 252. (382) office was the keeping of rolls or records of every thing done before them, which rolls were sometimes received as conclusive evidence. Bract. fol. 140 b, lib. 3, tr. 2, c. 20. See Counter-roll. (383) term corporatus occurs in the Code of Justinian. Cod. 11. 1. 8. Id. 11. 14. the law with the capacity of acting in several respects as an individual. Shelford on (384) which can be touched and seen; material. Mackeld. Civ. Law, 284, §. 240. Bract. Co. Litt. 9 a. fol. 38 b, 39 b, 45 b. See Corpore et (385) early as the 12th century. Dionysius Gothofredus, however, was the first who applied it as a title embracing all the collections of Justinian in one work, (A. D. 1604). 1 Mackeldey's Civ. Law, 89, § 98, note. See Am. ed. note to 1 P. Wms. 52.
CORn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A Hebrew measure of capacity; a homer. [Written also core.]
corintj
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.
Expression of surprise.
CoRnoun
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.
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