Definition
In old law, a term of Law French origin meaning grain. The word appears in historical legal sources as a gloss and is not the name of a distinct legal doctrine, right, or cause of action. Its legal significance is limited to its appearance in archaic texts where grain-related terminology intersects with manorial, agricultural, or customary rights — contexts in which precise translation of Law French terms was essential to understanding the scope of a grant, tenure, or obligation.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A thick semisolid; a clot, as of blood.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A thick, viscid fluid; a clot, as of blood." (Quincy.)
The gap here is complete. The common English word grume refers to a viscous or clotted fluid — a term from medicine and natural description. The legal usage has no connection to this meaning. A researcher encountering grume in an old legal document is not reading about blood or viscous matter; the word is functioning as a Law French term for grain. Importing the medical sense into legal interpretation would be an error.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a translation hazard rather than a substantive legal concept. Researchers working in medieval English law, manorial records, or early treatises written partly in Law French will encounter grume in glossarial contexts — typically as a parenthetical equivalent offered by a later legal lexicographer rather than as operative language in a primary source.
The primary trap is false cognate confusion: a researcher unfamiliar with Law French may either misread grume through its common English meaning (clotted blood, with potential criminal or medical law associations) or mistake it for a term of art when it is simply a vocabulary note. Burrill's treatment is itself a gloss-within-a-gloss, appearing as a subordinate note appended to the entry for GUADAGIUM rather than as a standalone headword. This placement reflects the marginal legal significance of the term as an independent concept.
Corpus researchers should note that Law French grain-related terms have substantive legal significance in contexts involving feudal rents (particularly renders in kind), tithe disputes, and customary tenures. If grume appears in a source document, the surrounding legal context — not the word itself — carries the operative weight. Check the document for associated terms governing agricultural renders, customary duties, or grants over land.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is not a definition of grume as a legal concept but rather a translator's note: "L. Fr. Grain. Kelham." The citation to Kelham points to Robert Kelham's Domesday Book Illustrated (1788), which includes a glossary of Law French and Latin terms used in early English legal records. Burrill uses this attribution to establish lexicographical authority for the translation rather than to identify a legal rule or doctrine.
No other major historical law dictionaries — not Tomlin's, not Jacob's, not Bouvier's — appear to carry a standalone entry for grume in the legal sense. Its appearance in Burrill is anomalous, likely included for completeness in coverage of Law French vocabulary rather than because the term had independent legal currency. Researchers should treat it accordingly: as a lexicographical artifact rather than a term with a documented legal pedigree.
Jurisdictional Note
Relevant exclusively to English legal history and materials deriving from the Norman and medieval common law tradition. No modern jurisdictional significance.