Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "times" or "heretofore." Appearing in historical legal texts and pleadings, *feez* functioned as a temporal marker indicating past occurrences or prior times. It is not a term of operative legal substance in modern law and survives only in historical sources and the study of Law French legal usage.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *feez* in medieval or early modern English legal manuscripts, plea rolls, or year books should treat it as a temporal adverb rather than a term of legal art. Its significance is linguistic and contextual: it signals that the surrounding passage refers to past events, prior proceedings, or historical practice. Because Law French was largely a technical argot rather than a living spoken language by the later medieval period, such terms often appear in compressed, formulaic phrases where mistranslation of a single word can distort the meaning of an entire passage.
The compound form *autre feez* — glossed by Kelham as "heretofore" or "at other times" — is the form most likely to appear in source materials. Researchers working with plea rolls, Year Books, or abridgments should note that *autre feez* could appear as a pleading formula asserting prior conduct or prior occurrences, distinct from the immediate matter at issue. Confusing it with terms of substantive legal significance could produce a misreading of what a party was actually alleging.
This term has no modern legal life. It will not appear in contemporary statutes, regulations, or case law. Its research relevance is confined entirely to the corpus of Law French legal literature and materials predating the formal displacement of Law French from English legal practice in the eighteenth century.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole shelf source covering this term. Burrill's entry is skeletal — identifying the term as Law French, glossing it as "times," cross-referencing Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* for the compound *autre feez* ("heretofore"), and providing no further substantive commentary. Kelham's glossary remains the most useful primary reference for researchers requiring fuller context on Law French temporal vocabulary of this kind.
No other historical law dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus address *feez* independently. This is consistent with the term's status as a functional particle rather than a term of legal doctrine. It would not have warranted treatment in works organized around substantive legal concepts.