Definition
"Fac" appears in historical legal sources as an abbreviation, most commonly for "facere" (Latin: "to do" or "to make") and, less often, for "factor." In legal manuscripts, writs, and pleadings, the abbreviation carried the force of its expanded Latin term. It is not a standalone legal term of art in modern practice but functions as a textual signal in historical documents.
1. As abbreviation for FACERE: Signals a command or obligation to act — "to do" something — appearing in writs and pleadings directing a party to perform an act.
2. As abbreviation for FACTOR: In some mercantile and agency contexts, "fac." was used as a shorthand for factor, meaning an agent entrusted with goods for sale on behalf of a principal, particularly one at a distance from the place of sale.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A factotum letter, or a similar kind of ornamentally bordered letter formerly used at the start of a chapter or section of a book.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A large ornamental letter used, especially by early printers, at the commencement of chapters and other divisions of a book.
The common meaning of "fac" is entirely typographic — a decorative initial letter in printed books. The legal meaning has nothing to do with typography. Researchers encountering "fac" in legal manuscripts or printed law books should not confuse an ornamental chapter-initial with the abbreviation for a legal Latin term or a mercantile agent.
Common Confusion
"Fac" can abbreviate either facere or factor depending on context. In writ and pleading contexts, the former is almost always intended. In mercantile and agency documents, the latter may apply. Anderson's directs readers from "fac" to "facere" without elaboration, while Burrill connects factor to a defined body of mercantile law. Researchers who assume the abbreviation has only one referent may misread the legal force of a document.
Why It Matters in Research
This is an abbreviation entry, and abbreviation entries are among the most treacherous in historical legal research. The same short form can resolve to different full terms depending on the document type, date, and jurisdiction.
When working with early printed law books or manuscript sources, encounter "fac." and ask: Is this a writ or pleading context (facere)? Or a mercantile or agency context (factor)? The answer changes the legal analysis entirely.
Burrill's extensive treatment of "factor" — occupying multiple pages and distinguishing factors from brokers by possession of goods, and from domestic agents by the principal's distance — indicates that the abbreviation in mercantile documents carried substantial legal weight. A factor was not merely an agent; the possessory relationship and the principal's location were defining legal characteristics with direct consequences for lien rights, title disputes, and liability.
Researchers in the Law Mind corpus should follow this entry to FACERE for the command-and-obligation line of analysis, and to FACTOR for the mercantile agency line. Do not treat "fac" as a dead stub; it is a pointer to two substantively different bodies of law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's treats "fac" as a pure cross-reference to FACERE, offering no independent definition — the entire entry is the redirection. This is consistent with Anderson's general approach to Latin abbreviations.
Burrill, by contrast, develops the factor meaning at length (pages 596–598), citing Story on Agency and Russell on Factors and drawing the distinction between a factor and a broker on the basis of possession: a factor holds the goods; a broker does not. Burrill also notes that factors are "more commonly employed to sell than to buy," which carried practical legal consequences in disputes over authority and liability.
The two dictionaries are not in conflict — they simply address different expansions of the same abbreviation. Neither dictionary explicitly flags the ambiguity between the two possible expansions, which is the central research hazard this entry is designed to address.
Jurisdictional Note
The law of factors developed with meaningful variation between English common law and American commercial practice, particularly in the nineteenth century, when American factor acts in several states modified the common law rules on apparent authority and lien rights. Researchers working with American mercantile sources from the 1800s should not assume English treatise authority maps directly onto American statutory context.