Definition
A Latin adverb used in old English law meaning "severally" or "separately." The term appears in medieval legal instruments and records to indicate that persons, obligations, or rights are to be treated as distinct and individual rather than jointly held or jointly owed. Where an obligation runs divisim, each party is bound only for their own separate share; where a right exists divisim, each holder possesses a distinct, independent interest.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Written as two or more separate words.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): No entry. The term did not enter general English usage.
The Wiktionary definition reflects a grammatical usage (describing words set apart in text) entirely unrelated to the legal meaning. A researcher encountering divisim in a legal manuscript should not infer any textual or typographical meaning — the legal usage is strictly about severance of legal relationships among persons.
Common Confusion
Divisim is most easily confused with conjunctim, its functional opposite. Where conjunctim binds or grants jointly, divisim does so severally. The two terms frequently appear together in medieval writs and pleadings to describe how co-obligors or co-grantees stand relative to one another. Confusing the two reverses the legal effect entirely. Divisim is also loosely related to the modern concept of several liability, but the terms are not interchangeable in historical analysis — divisim is adverbial and descriptive of form, while several liability is a substantive legal doctrine with its own doctrinal development.
Why It Matters in Research
Divisim is a term of medieval Latin legal form, and researchers are most likely to encounter it in transcriptions of early English court rolls, writs, plea rolls, and Bracton-era treatises. Its appearance is a signal about the structure of an obligation or grant, not merely a stylistic choice.
Several practical research notes:
First, the term is virtually absent from modern legal usage. If it appears in a post-17th-century source, treat the usage as archaic citation or learned quotation rather than operative legal language.
Second, the dictionary sources all cite Bracton, folio 47. That single citation accounts for nearly the entire documentary trail in the historical dictionaries. Researchers relying on this term in primary source analysis should consult Bracton directly rather than relying on the dictionary chain, which simply repeats the same reference.
Third, the term may appear in abbreviated or contracted form in manuscript sources, particularly in plea roll Latin, where adverbs are frequently compressed. Familiarity with standard medieval Latin contractions helps avoid misreading.
Fourth, when researching the historical law of joint and several obligation, divisim is part of a cluster of Latin terms — including conjunctim, in solidum, and pro rata — that together map the conceptual space. Finding divisim in isolation may indicate a severally-only obligation; finding divisim alongside conjunctim in the same instrument signals a conjunctive-and-several formulation that carries different legal consequences for co-parties.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in agreement: divisim means severally or separately, it is old English law Latin, and the authority is Bracton folio 47. There is no substantive divergence among the sources.
The entries are notably sparse. Black's first edition truncates mid-sentence ("Sever-"), suggesting a printing or digitization error in the source material rather than a meaningful textual variant. Black's second edition adds the fragment "One of the Used in," which similarly appears to be a corrupted entry — likely the tail end of a longer sentence that was cut off. Burrill's entry is the cleanest and most complete of the three, and should be treated as the most reliable version for citation purposes.
None of the historical dictionaries contextualizes divisim within the broader system of medieval Latin obligatory terms, nor do they trace any development or decline in usage. The term is presented as a static artifact, which is accurate — it did not evolve so much as simply fall out of use as English replaced Latin in legal proceedings.
Jurisdictional Note
Divisim is a term of old English common law Latin with no recognized usage in American, Scottish, or civilian legal traditions as an operative term. Researchers working in Scots law or civil law systems should look to their own parallel vocabulary (e.g., pro diviso in property contexts) rather than treating divisim as a cross-jurisdictional bridge.