Definition
In old Law French legal usage, to perform or carry out an act. The past participial form, *enfourny*, means performed or completed. The term appears in early English Year Book records and belongs to the Law French vocabulary that dominated English legal pleading and reporting from the Norman period through the seventeenth century.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational marker, not a substantive legal concept. Researchers encountering *enfourner* or *enfourny* in Year Book materials or early common law pleadings are dealing with a performative verb — a word signaling that an obligation, act, or duty has been fulfilled. The significance lies in recognizing it quickly so as not to misread a passage as introducing a new term of art.
The term appears in Year Book records from the reign of Edward III (3 Edw.), placing it firmly in the fourteenth-century Law French tradition. Year Books are notoriously difficult for modern researchers: the French is archaic and idiosyncratic, abbreviations are dense, and the same underlying concept may be expressed differently across reporters and regnal years. Burrill's is one of the few standard Law dictionaries to flag this term at all, which means researchers relying on later or more abbreviated references — Black's, Bouvier's — will find no entry and may be left without guidance.
The practical trap is mistaking *enfourner* for a term of substantive legal significance when it functions as a verbal connector establishing that performance has occurred. In pleading contexts, the distinction between an act alleged and an act *performed* (enfourny) could carry procedural weight, particularly in actions turning on whether a covenant or condition had been satisfied.
Researchers working in digitized Year Book databases should note that OCR and manual transcription of Law French is unreliable. Variant spellings are common, and the term may appear in forms not indexed under a single headword.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole source among standard historical legal dictionaries to record this term. The entry is minimal: a gloss of "to perform," a past participial form, and a single Year Book citation (Mich. 3 Edw., unspecified Edward). Burrill does not elaborate on the legal context or the nature of the act being performed.
The entry is characteristic of Burrill's treatment of Law French vocabulary generally — faithful in preservation but sparse in analysis. No contemporaneous doctrinal weight is attached to the term, and no other standard dictionary (Bouvier, Black's, Tomlin, Jacob) appears to have carried it forward. This silence in later dictionaries reflects the declining use of Law French in legal records after the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1731 (4 Geo. II, c. 26), which mandated English in legal proceedings.
The Year Book citation anchors the term in the fourteenth century. Without knowing which Edward is intended — likely Edward III (1327–1377), given the register of Year Book citation conventions Burrill uses — the full procedural context cannot be reconstructed from the dictionary entry alone. Researchers needing that context should consult the relevant Year Book directly or the Selden Society editions where available.
Jurisdictional Note
This is a term of English legal history with no recognized modern jurisdictional application. It does not appear in current American, English, or Commonwealth legal usage.