Definition
An abbreviated Latin term, shortened from *flagellatus*, meaning "whipped" or "scourged." In legal contexts, the word appears not as a substantive legal concept but as a record notation — a shorthand entry used in old Scottish criminal records to indicate that a convicted person had received a sentence of corporal punishment by whipping. It is not a term of art carrying doctrinal weight; it is a scribal abbreviation functioning as a docket annotation.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard English entry. The root verb *flagellate* means to whip or flog, used in both literal and figurative senses.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): *Flagellate* — to whip; to scourge. From Latin *flagellum*, a whip or scourge.
The gap here is narrow but worth noting for researchers: in ordinary English, *flagellate* is an active verb or adjective. In the Scottish criminal record context, *flagellat* is a passive past-participial notation — it records that punishment was administered, not that it is being ordered. A reader encountering it in a historical transcript should understand it as a completed-action entry, not a prospective sentencing instruction.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term matters almost exclusively in one context: the reading and interpretation of early Scottish criminal records, particularly those transcribed or cited in Pitcairn's *Criminal Trials in Scotland* (the source referenced consistently across all historical dictionaries as "1 Pitc. Crim. Tr. pt. 1, p. 7"). Researchers working with that corpus or with pre-modern Scottish court records will encounter this abbreviation and may not immediately recognize it as a punishment notation rather than a charge designation or procedural term.
Several research traps apply:
First, the abbreviation *flagellat* could be confused with a charge or a defendant's status rather than understood as the outcome of a proceeding. In record-keeping of this era, sentence notations were often compressed to single words or abbreviations placed in the margin or alongside a name.
Second, researchers using full-text search tools on digitized Scottish criminal records should be aware that *flagellat* may appear in variant spellings or truncations (*flagell*, *flagellatus*, *flagell'd*), and that these all refer to the same punishment notation. Search strategies should account for this variation.
Third, there is no English common law equivalent notation. English records of the same period typically used different Latin or English shorthand for corporal punishment outcomes. Researchers moving between Scottish and English historical criminal records should not assume parallel conventions.
Finally, *flagellat* has no bearing on modern law. It is exclusively a historical paleographic and archival research term. Its presence in Black's and Burrill's reflects those dictionaries' function as research aids for practitioners who might encounter Latin abbreviations in older source materials — not an indication that the term carried ongoing legal significance.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries are in complete agreement: *flagellat* means "whipped" or "scourged" and appears as an entry in old Scottish criminal records, with every entry citing the same source (Pitcairn's *Criminal Trials*). The consistency across Black's (both editions), Burrill's, and Bouvier's reflects the dictionaries drawing from a common root reference rather than independent verification.
Burrill's is the most precise of the group, explicitly identifying the term as an abbreviation of *flagellatus* — a useful clarification that the other dictionaries imply but do not state. Bouvier's entry is notable for running *flagellat* directly into the adjacent entry for *flagrans* without clear separation, which can cause visual confusion in older print editions; researchers consulting Bouvier's should be alert to where one entry ends and the next begins.
None of the historical dictionaries provides any doctrinal elaboration, because none is warranted. This is a record-reading aid, not a legal doctrine entry.
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Jurisdictional Note
Exclusively relevant to Scottish legal history. No English common law, American, or continental European equivalent usage has been recorded in the source dictionaries. Researchers working in comparative legal history should treat this as a Scottish archival term only.
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