DELF

7 definitions found across Law Mind sources

DELFAuthored
The Law Mind • 651 words
Definition
A quarry or mine. In English legal usage, "delf" denotes an excavated pit, quarry, or mine — a place from which stone, ore, or minerals are extracted from the earth. The term appears in statutory contexts relating to the regulation of such workings. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Diplôme d'étude de langue française," a French-language proficiency qualification. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A mine; a quarry; a pit dug; a ditch." Noted as obsolete, with variant spellings delft and delve. The legal and historical common meanings are, for once, closely aligned — both refer to an excavated workings or pit. The modern Wiktionary entry is entirely unrelated, reflecting only the term's survival in an unconnected specialized context. Researchers encountering "delf" in historical legal documents should not be misled by modern usage; the word is a straightforward archaic term for a mine or quarry. ---
Why It Matters in Research
"Delf" is an archaic term that appears almost exclusively in early English statutes and documents dealing with mining, quarrying, and land use. Its primary statutory anchor is 31 Eliz. c. 7, a late sixteenth-century English statute, and it surfaces in legal texts of that era and the centuries immediately following. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should be alert to several points. First, the term is genuinely obsolete — it will not appear in modern statutory codes or contemporary case law. Its presence in a source is itself a reliable dating signal, suggesting a document of early modern English origin or a treatise closely engaged with that period's law. Second, variant spellings are common: "delft" and "delve" appear in historical sources and refer to the same concept. A corpus search limited to "delf" alone may miss relevant passages using these variants. Third, the word has no survival in American legal usage; it is a term of English law only and will not appear in colonial American statutes or post-independence American materials except as historical quotation. Fourth, because the term appears in Black's Law Dictionary primarily as a pass-through citation to a single statute, it carries minimal doctrinal weight — its value to researchers is definitional and contextual rather than as a live legal concept. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Both the first and second editions of Black's Law Dictionary give identical treatment: "a quarry or mine," followed by citation to 31 Eliz. c. 7. Neither edition elaborates on doctrine, context, or the term's relationship to adjacent mining law concepts. The entries appear to serve as brief glosses for readers encountering the word in historical statutes rather than as substantive legal analysis. Webster's 1913 is more informative on the common dimension, noting the variant spellings and flagging the word as obsolete, and supplying a period quotation from Ray illustrating usage in the context of mine drainage. That quotation — concerning mines "flown with waters" that machines could not keep dry — situates "delf" in the practical world of early modern mineral extraction, where legal regulation of drainage, trespass, and access to workings was a live concern. What the historical dictionaries do not provide is any doctrinal development: no discussion of property rights in a delf, no treatment of how rights to quarry intersected with surface ownership or mineral rights, and no account of how the term related to contemporaneous concepts such as "mine," "pit," or "quarry" in statutory interpretation. Researchers needing that context must go to period treatises on English mining law and real property rather than relying on dictionary entries. ---
Jurisdictional Note
"Delf" is a term of English law with no recognized American counterpart. It does not appear in the legal vocabulary of any U.S. jurisdiction. Research utility is limited to English law of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. ---
Related Terms
Mine; Quarry; Mineral rights; Profit à prendre; Severance (of mineral estate); Turbary; Estovers
DELFmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A quarry or mine. 31 Eliz. c. 7. Deliberandum est diu quod statuen- dum est semel. 12 Coke, 74. That which is to be resolved once for all should be long deliberated upon. DELIBERATE, 0. To weigh, ponder, discuss. To examine, to consult, in order to form an opinion. DELIBERATE, adj. By the use of this word, in describing a crime, the idea is conveyed that the perpetrator weighs the motives for the act and its consequences, the nature of the crime, or other things con- nected with his intentions, with a view to a decision thereon; that he carefully considers all these; and that the act is not suddenly committed. It implies that the perpetrator must be capable of the exercise of such mental powers as are called into use by de- liberation and the consideration and weigh- ing of motives and consequences. 28 Iowa, 524. "Deliberation" and "premeditation" are of the same character of mental operations, dif- fering only in degree. Deliberation is but pro- longed premeditation. In other words, in law, deliberation is premeditation in a cool state of the blood, or, where there has been heat of passion, it is premeditation continued beyond the period within which there has been time for the blood to cool, in the given case. Deliberation is not only to think of be- forehand, which may be but for an instant, but the inclination to do the act is considered, weighed, pondered upon, for such a length of time after a provocation is given as the jury may find was sufficient for the blood to cool. One in a heat of passion may premedi- tate without deliberating. Deliberation is only exercised in a cool state of the blood, while premeditation may be either in that state of the blood or in the heat of passion. 74 Mo. 249. See, also, 20 Tex. 522; 15 Nev. 178; 5 Mo. 364; 66 Mo. 13.
DELFmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
A quarry or mine. 31 Eliz. c. 7. Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel. 12 Coke, 74. That which is to be resolved once for all should be long deliberated upon. DELIBERATE, v. To weigh, ponder, discuss. To examine, to consult, in order to form an opinion. DELIBERATE, adj. By the use of this word, in describing a crime, the idea is conveyed that the perpetrator weighs the motives for the act and its consequences, the nature of the crime, or other things connected with his intentions, with a view to a decision thereon; that he carefully considers
DELFn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A mine; a quarry; a pit dug; a ditch. [Written also delft, and delve.] [Obs.] The delfts would be so flown with waters, that no gins or machines could . . . keep them dry. Ray.
DELFn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Same as Delftware.
DELFnoun
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.
Diplôme d'étude de langue française, a French-language qualification.
delfnoun
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.
A mine, quarry, pit dug; ditch. | A charge representing a square sod of turf, traditionally taking the form of a simple square (e.g. in the middle of an escutcheon), although modernly sometimes represented with the grass in profile. | Alternative form of delft (“style of earthenware”).

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