Definition
A Latin term of limitation used in old conveyancing, meaning "provided that" or "so that." In the Latin forms of deeds and conveyances, dummodo introduced a reservation or condition — most commonly a reservation of rent. The word functioned as a conditional qualifier, signaling that the grant or conveyance operated only subject to the limitation that followed. A standard formulation was dummodo solverit talem redditum: "provided he shall pay such a rent."
Why It Matters in Research
Dummodo is a pure artifact of Latin conveyancing practice and will appear almost exclusively in pre-modern deed forms, early real property treatises, and cases interpreting medieval or early modern instruments. Researchers encountering the term in historical deeds, English Year Books, or Coke's Institutes should treat it as a flag that a reservation clause follows — typically one creating a condition or rent charge that runs with the land.
The term has no modern drafting use. Contemporary conveyances accomplish the same function with plain-English reservation language. If a research question turns on whether a historical instrument successfully reserved a rent or other interest, identifying the dummodo clause is the first step; the next is examining whether the reservation met the formal requirements of the relevant period (the apt words doctrine, sealing, livery of seisin, and so on). Burrill's citation to Coke on Littleton is the most useful historical pointer for understanding how courts construed these clauses.
Because the word appears in Latin text embedded in otherwise English-language instruments, keyword searching across digitized historical deed records or early case reporters may miss it if transcription rendered the Latin inconsistently. Researchers should also search variant spellings and the English equivalents "provided that" and "so that" in context.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree on the core meaning — "provided that" or "so that" — and on the function: a word of limitation in Latin deed forms used to introduce reservations. The sources converge on the rent reservation as the paradigm case.
Burrill is the most substantive of the four, citing Coke's Reports (10 Co. 41b) and Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 235a, 47a) and supplying the illustrative phrase dummodo solverit talem redditum. Burrill's characterization of dummodo as "one of the apt words of reserving a rent" reflects the period doctrine that certain specific words were required to effect particular legal results in a conveyance — a formalism that modern drafting has abandoned entirely.
Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence offer shorter treatments that confirm the same function without adding doctrinal depth. Rapalje & Lawrence appends an unrelated note on "dun" as a topographical term, which is a separate entry artifact and should not be read as connected to the legal meaning of dummodo.
None of the historical dictionaries discuss what consequences flowed from omitting dummodo or substituting equivalent language — a gap that matters for researchers interpreting disputed historical instruments. For that question, Coke on Littleton remains the primary source.