Definition
An Anglo-French (Law French) term of procedure meaning to show or to point out. Used in medieval English legal pleading and court practice, enseyner described the act of directing attention to something — a document, a person, a place, or a fact — within the context of a proceeding. The term is essentially a verb of demonstration or indication.
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Why It Matters in Research
Enseyner is a specimen of Law French, the specialized legal dialect derived from Norman French that dominated English court records, plea rolls, and year books from roughly the twelfth century through the seventeenth. Researchers encountering the term in manuscript or printed sources should be aware of several points.
First, spelling is highly unstable in Law French sources. The same root appears as enseyner, enseignier, and variant forms across different manuscripts and printed editions of the Year Books. A search on a single spelling will miss cognate appearances. When reading Kelham's Glossary — the reference Burrill cites — researchers should use it as a gateway to broader philological investigation rather than a terminus.
Second, the term belongs to a cluster of procedurally significant Law French verbs that fill roles later occupied by English terms of art. Understanding enseyner alongside neighboring terms (see RELATED TERMS) helps reconstruct the vocabulary of medieval pleading, particularly in contexts involving production of evidence, identification of parties, or direction to a specific record.
Third, because the term has no survival into modern common law terminology, it will appear only in primary sources predating the general displacement of Law French by English in legal proceedings — effectively, sources before the mid-to-late seventeenth century. The Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730 formalized the transition to English in English courts, so researchers can treat that date as a rough outer boundary for live usage.
Fourth, Burrill places enseyner in close proximity to ensi (meaning so, thus, or in like manner) and ensiwer/ensuer (meaning to ensue or to follow). These entries were likely grouped by Burrill on orthographic grounds, not because they share a common legal function. A researcher who encounters an unfamiliar Law French term beginning with "ens-" should distinguish carefully among these three distinct words before assigning meaning.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole shelf source for this term, and its entry is brief: it defines enseyner as "to show; to point out" and attributes the gloss to Kelham's Norman-French Dictionary. Burrill offers no procedural context and no illustrative quotation, which reflects the nature of the term — it was a workaday procedural verb, not a term of art generating doctrinal dispute or elaborate commentary.
Kelham's Dictionary (Robert Kelham, A Dictionary of the Norman and Old French Language, 1779) remains the foundational reference for Law French vocabulary of this kind, and Burrill's reliance on it is appropriate. Researchers who need more granular philological treatment should consult Kelham directly and cross-reference with the glossaries appended to standard printed Year Book editions.
No broader historical dictionary sources — Black's, Tomlin's, Jacob's, or Bouvier's — carry this term, which is consistent with its status as deep archaic Law French with no continuous legal life.
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