Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning the tenth part. Used in medieval English legal records and instruments to denote a tenth portion, particularly in contexts involving tithes, dues, or fractional divisions of property or revenue.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering DISE in historical legal manuscripts, plea rolls, or ecclesiastical records should recognize it as a Law French abbreviation or rendering of the concept of a tenth — functionally synonymous with the more familiar terms TITHE and DECIMA. Because Law French pervaded English legal records from the Norman Conquest through the seventeenth century, scribal contractions and variant spellings of fractional terms are common. DISE may appear in records relating to ecclesiastical dues, feudal renders, or partition of estates where a tenth-part interest is at issue. Do not conflate the term with any modern surname or proper noun; in legal record contexts it is a substantive term of art, not a personal name. The term is largely obsolete in living legal practice and will not appear in modern statutory or case law sources.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole substantive entry: "L. Fr. The tenth part. Kelham." The attribution to Kelham refers to Robert Kelham's Domesday Book Illustrated (1788) and his glossary of Law French terms, a standard reference for Norman-period legal vocabulary. Rapalje and Lawrence do not carry a dedicated entry for DISE, and their coverage in the provided source material addresses unrelated terms. No modern legal dictionary of note retains DISE as an active entry, reflecting the term's complete obsolescence outside of historical and archival legal research. The brevity of Burrill's entry is typical for Law French vestiges: the term's meaning was self-evident to practitioners of the period and required no elaboration.