Definition
A term from Scots law meaning to forfeit or to lose — specifically, to suffer the legal loss of property, rights, or title as a consequence of some offense, failure, or breach of duty. FOREFAULT is the Scots equivalent of the English concept of forfeiture, denoting the act by which a person's interest in land or goods is divested and transferred, typically to the Crown or a superior lord, by operation of law.
Why It Matters in Research
FOREFAULT is an archaic Scots legal term that will appear almost exclusively in pre-Union Scottish legal records, feudal land documents, and historical commentaries on Scots law. Researchers working with Scottish property records, attainder proceedings, or feudal tenure instruments from the 16th through 18th centuries may encounter the term in its original context.
The primary trap in historical research is conflating FOREFAULT with the English doctrine of forfeiture without accounting for the procedural and doctrinal differences between Scots and English law. Scottish forfeiture operated through distinct mechanisms — including recognition and non-entry — which had no direct English equivalents. Burrill's citation to Skene's De Verborum Significatione is the most useful pointer for researchers needing primary authority: Sir John Skene's glossary (1597) remains a foundational reference for archaic Scots legal vocabulary and explains the term in its feudal context.
Researchers should also note the Scots vernacular equivalent recorded by Burrill: "to tyne," meaning to lose. This verb appears in older Scots records and literary sources and may be the form encountered in non-legal documents of the period. Recognizing the equivalence between FOREFAULT, forfeit, and tyne is essential for cross-referencing across source types.
Because the term is essentially dormant in modern legal usage, it poses no live jurisdictional research problem. Its significance is almost entirely historical and archival.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree precisely: FOREFAULT means to forfeit or to lose, and all identify it as a term of Scots law. The definitions are functionally identical across Black's (1st and 2nd editions), Bouvier's, and Burrill's, suggesting the term was well-settled and uncontroversial even in historical legal lexicography — a term copied forward rather than debated.
Burrill adds the most substantive value by recording the Scots vernacular synonym "to tyne" and citing Skene's De Verborum Significatione, giving researchers a path to the primary Scots authority. Black's and Bouvier's offer no independent elaboration beyond the bare translation. None of the historical dictionaries addresses the procedural context in which FOREFAULT would have operated — such as forfeiture by recognition (reversion of a fief to a superior lord for breach of feudal duty) — leaving researchers to consult Skene or later institutional writers such as Stair or Erskine for substantive doctrine.
The brevity of all four entries signals that by the time these dictionaries were compiled, FOREFAULT was already a historical curiosity rather than a term in active use.
Jurisdictional Note
FOREFAULT is specific to Scots law and has no application in English, American, or other common law systems. Researchers should treat it as a term confined to Scottish legal history, particularly the feudal period preceding and immediately following the Acts of Union (1707).