Definition
An obsolete Law French term meaning to pull up or tear out by the roots. In its legal context, *enracer* denoted the act of uprooting — most likely applied to trees, plants, or other fixed growths — and carried implications relevant to waste, property damage, or the wrongful destruction of another's land or its natural appurtenances. The term appears in early English legal records and pleadings where Law French was the operative language of the courts, roughly from the Norman period through the seventeenth century.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard English entry. The word does not appear in contemporary English dictionaries as a living term.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed. By the nineteenth century the term had passed entirely out of use.
Editorial note: *Enracer* was never an English word in any ordinary sense — it belongs exclusively to the Law French register. Researchers encountering it outside a legal document should treat it as a probable transcription from a formal pleading or legal formulary rather than vernacular usage.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval and early modern English property records, plea rolls, or writs may encounter *enracer* in contexts involving waste or trespass to land. The critical navigational point is this: Law French terms describing physical acts of destruction to real property often have near-synonyms that shade into different causes of action. *Enracer* — pulling up by the roots — is distinct from merely cutting or felling, and that distinction could matter in a period when the precise nature of the wrongful act shaped which writ was appropriate and what remedy was available.
The term's appearance in a source document is a signal that the researcher is working with material predating English's dominance in legal proceedings, likely pre-1650 and quite possibly much earlier. Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (cited by Burrill) is the natural next stop for researchers needing fuller philological context. Because the word is rare and highly specific, its presence may help date or authenticate a document.
No modern legal usage exists. Any appearance of this term in a contemporary source is either a direct quotation from a historical instrument or an error.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is minimal: it gives the language designation (Law French), the definition ("to pull up by the roots"), and credits Kelham as the authority. That brevity is itself informative — Burrill found no case law or doctrinal elaboration to attach to the term, suggesting it functioned as descriptive language in pleadings rather than as a term of art generating its own body of doctrine.
Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779) is the original scholarly source here, and Burrill defers to it entirely. Researchers who need the word in its fuller Norman French context, or who want to compare it to related terms of destruction in early property pleadings, should consult Kelham directly rather than relying on Burrill's condensed relay.
No other major historical legal dictionaries — Jacob, Tomlin, Black's early editions, or Bouvier — appear to carry this entry, which underscores how narrow the term's circulation was even within the specialized vocabulary of Law French legal usage.
Jurisdictional Note
Exclusively an English legal history term, arising from the Norman French legal tradition transplanted to England after 1066. No application in American, Scottish, or continental legal systems.