Definition
To put forth, send out, or issue with authority. In American constitutional law, "emit" carries the specific meaning of issuing paper intended to circulate as money — a meaning fixed by Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution, which prohibits states from emitting bills of credit. To emit in this sense is not merely to promise future payment or to borrow money; it is to send paper into general circulation as a currency substitute, redeemable at a future day.
In Scotch criminal practice, "emit" bore a distinct procedural meaning: to speak out or state verbally. A prisoner was said to emit a declaration when making an oral statement in examination before a magistrate.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To send out or give off; to come out or be given off. Also used in computing to describe the production of machine instructions or bytecode during compilation.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "To send forth; to throw or give out; to cause to issue; to give vent to; to eject; to discharge." Webster's 1913 itself bridges into legal territory, quoting the constitutional prohibition — reflecting how thoroughly the constitutional usage had saturated the word by that period.
The gap between ordinary and legal meaning is narrow in form but precise in consequence. Ordinary usage is broad — fire emits heat, a speaker emits sound. Legal usage under the Constitution is technically bounded: a state "emits" bills of credit only when it issues paper designed to circulate as money through the community. A state that borrows money or promises future payment for services rendered does not "emit" in the constitutional sense. That distinction is not obvious from the common word.
Common Confusion
The constitutional prohibition on emitting bills of credit is sometimes read as a general bar on state-issued paper obligations. It is not. The historical dictionaries are consistent on this point: the word "emit" in Article I, Section 10 was understood by American courts to cover only paper issued to circulate as currency — not ordinary state bonds, contracts for payment of services, or instruments of public debt not intended for general circulation as money. Researchers who conflate "emit" with any state financial issuance will misread the scope of the constitutional restriction.
Why It Matters in Research
The constitutional meaning of "emit" is the primary legal significance of this term in American law, and its narrow construction matters for corpus navigation in several ways.
First, early Supreme Court jurisprudence drew a sharp line between paper "emitted" as circulating currency and other state financial instruments. Researchers tracing the bills of credit cases will find the word doing substantial doctrinal work in a small number of foundational decisions. The source dictionaries reflect this case law directly, and Bouvier's citation trail — pointing to early Peters reports — anchors the definition to those specific holdings.
Second, the Scotch law meaning (emitting a declaration) is entirely distinct and surfaces in a narrow body of Scottish criminal procedure materials. Researchers encountering this usage in British or comparative sources should not import American constitutional associations.
Third, the term has no significant statutory or regulatory footprint in modern American law under this spelling and primary sense. Contemporary environmental and securities law uses "emit" and "emission" in ordinary senses (atmospheric discharge, signal transmission) without the constitutional overlay. Context is decisive: "emit" in a pre-Civil War constitutional or banking law source almost certainly invokes the Article I, Section 10 meaning; "emit" in a modern regulatory source almost certainly does not.
Fourth, the historical dictionaries unanimously agree on the constitutional meaning and its limiting gloss — that state debt instruments not intended to circulate as currency fall outside the prohibition. This unanimity is itself useful; there is no significant doctrinal dispute in the lexicographic record to navigate.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources are unusually coherent on this term. Black's (both editions), Bouvier's, Burrill's, and Rapalje & Lawrence all converge on the same two-part structure: the American constitutional meaning (issue paper as circulating currency) and the Scotch practice meaning (state verbally). Anderson's cross-references without independent definition.
Burrill's adds the most explicit limiting gloss, tracking the judicial construction that "emit" in the constitutional sense does not reach ordinary state financial contracts. Bouvier's provides the most specific case anchor. Black's first edition includes a sentence directly quoting the accepted judicial construction: "The word 'emit' is never employed in describing those contracts by which a state binds itself to pay money at a future day for services actually received, or for money borrowed for present use." This is not mere dictionary synthesis — it reflects absorbed case law, and researchers should treat it as a pointer to early constitutional jurisprudence rather than an independent authority.
None of the historical dictionaries addresses the term's modern regulatory or environmental uses, which postdate the corpus entirely.
Jurisdictional Note
The constitutional prohibition of Article I, Section 10 applies to states only, not to the federal government. The federal government's authority to issue currency rests on separate constitutional provisions. The Scotch law meaning of "emit" is specific to Scottish criminal procedure and has no American counterpart.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Bills of Credit; Constitutional Limitations on State Financial Powers.