Definition
Dimete (also Dimetae) is an archaic Latin term with two distinct recorded legal and historical uses:
1. The ancient Latin name for the tribal people who inhabited the southwestern region of Wales — specifically the territories corresponding to modern Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Cardiganshire. The term appears in Roman-era and medieval Latin geographical and historical sources referring to this pre-Norman Welsh population.
2. In ecclesiastical and academic usage, dimete (or dimittere, of which this may be a variant or abbreviation) refers to a formal instrument of release or permission issued by a church or academic body, encompassing: (a) a document given by colleges and societies upon the commencement of degrees; and (b) a license granted to a clergyman authorizing him to exercise ministerial functions, typically outside his home diocese or beyond his original ordination jurisdiction.
The source material as preserved in Rapalje & Lawrence appears to reflect a fragmentary transcription, and the two senses may represent distinct headwords that were editorially collapsed or corrupted in transmission.
Common Confusion
The ecclesiastical and academic meaning of dimete overlaps substantially with the better-known term DIMISSORY (as in dimissory letters or litterae dimissoriae), which similarly denotes a bishop's or authority's license releasing a clergyman or candidate for ordination or ministry elsewhere. Researchers encountering dimete in historical legal texts should consider whether the author intended dimissory letters or a cognate instrument. The geographic sense — referring to the Welsh tribal population — is entirely separate and should not be conflated with the ecclesiastical sense.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is unlikely to appear in modern legal practice and functions almost exclusively as a research term for historians and scholars working in ecclesiastical law, Welsh legal history, or Roman and medieval Latin sources.
For the ecclesiastical/academic meaning: Researchers working through older English canon law materials, diocesan records, or university statutes may encounter dimete or close variants as shorthand for instruments of release and licensure. The practical significance lies in understanding what rights or permissions such a document conveyed — particularly in disputes over clerical jurisdiction, ordination validity, or degree conferral. Because the Rapalje & Lawrence entry is fragmentary, researchers should cross-reference entries for DIMISSORY LETTERS and EXEAT to reconstruct the full doctrinal context.
For the geographic/tribal meaning: The Dimetae appear in Roman administrative and geographical writing about Britain. Researchers in Welsh legal history, land tenure disputes involving ancient tribal territories, or the history of the Welsh Marches may encounter the term in Latin source documents. It has no operative legal significance in modern law but may appear in title chains, boundary descriptions, or historical recitals in deeds concerning southwestern Wales.
The corrupted or compressed state of the Rapalje & Lawrence entry is itself a research trap: do not treat the entry as a reliable standalone definition. The juxtaposition of the Welsh tribal meaning and the ecclesiastical licensure meaning in a single entry almost certainly reflects a transcription or typesetting error in the source, merging two separate headwords.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the sole source dictionary providing a definition, and that entry is demonstrably incomplete — the text breaks mid-sentence and conflates what appear to be two unrelated definitions. The first sense (Welsh tribal inhabitants) is a proper noun used as a Latin geographical term and would be more at home in a classical dictionary or historical gazetteer than a law dictionary. The second sense (academic/ecclesiastical instrument) aligns with the broader family of dimissory instruments documented in ecclesiastical law sources and canon law treatises.
No other major historical legal dictionaries in the standard shelf — Bouvier, Black, Burrill, Tomlin — carry an entry for dimete as a standalone term. The ecclesiastical instrument sense is well covered under DIMISSORY in those sources, and researchers should treat that entry as the authoritative historical treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
The geographic sense is specific to Wales and Roman Britain. The ecclesiastical licensure sense was operative across English and Welsh canon law jurisdictions under the Church of England, and analogous instruments exist in Roman Catholic canon law. Neither sense carries operative modern legal significance in common law jurisdictions.