Definition
An archaic Law French verb meaning "to eject." Used in early English legal records and Year Books to describe the act of dispossessing a person from land or premises. The term appears in its participial form *ejetta* (ejected) in the same sources. Egetter is not a term of art in modern law; it survives only as a linguistic predecessor to the English legal vocabulary surrounding ejectment and dispossession.
Common Confusion
EGETTER / EJECTMENT: These are not equivalent. *Egetter* is a verb from Law French meaning the act of ejecting; ejectment is the English common law action developed to remedy unlawful dispossession. Encountering *egetter* in a Year Book record does not mean the reporter is describing a formal action of ejectment. The formal action (*ejectio firmae*) emerged and evolved over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; Year Book usages of *egetter* may reflect earlier, less-structured trespass-based proceedings.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval and early modern English legal records — particularly the Year Books — will encounter Law French terms like *egetter* and *ejetta* where modern sources would use "eject," "oust," or "dispossess." Misreading or failing to recognize these forms can obscure the procedural posture of a reported case. The Year Book citation in Burrill (*Mich. 10 Hen. VI, fo. 63*) places this usage in the early fifteenth century, a period when the action of ejectment was still developing from its roots in trespass. Researchers tracing the doctrinal history of ejectment back through the Year Books should treat *egetter* and cognate forms as markers for early dispossession disputes that predate the mature fictional action of *ejectio firmae*. Do not assume that every instance of *egetter* in a Year Book signals the formal writ of ejectment as it was later understood — the procedural apparatus had not yet crystallized.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole historical dictionary treatment identified in this corpus. Burrill defines the term concisely as Law French for "to eject," noting the participial form *ejetta* and citing the Year Book of Michaelmas Term, 10 Henry VI. The entry is brief by necessity: this is a functional verb in a deprecated legal language rather than a substantive term of art, and no broader doctrinal content attaches to it. No other shelf sources in the Law Mind corpus appear to address *egetter* directly. Researchers should not expect to find treatment of this specific term in Bouvier, Black, or other standard dictionaries, which instead address its English descendants — eject, ejectment, and related forms — as fully developed legal concepts.