Definition
A Latin adverb meaning "unlawfully." In legal usage, *illicite* carries a precise technical function: it is a required term of pleading in criminal indictments where the act charged is inherently unlawful in character — as distinguished from acts that are merely wrongful in their manner or execution. The term does not simply describe conduct; it signals the legal quality of the act itself, affirming that what was done falls outside the bounds of lawful authority or permission.
Common Language
No common English counterpart exists. *Illicite* is pure Latin legal vocabulary with no independent life in ordinary English usage. The modern English cognate "illicit" exists, but the dictionary term is the Latin form as it appeared in formal pleading.
Common Confusion
*Illicite* is not interchangeable with *illegally* or *unlawfully* as general-purpose synonyms. In the technical pleading context, its presence (or absence) carried substantive consequences. The word *unlawfully* in English indictments served the same function, but older authorities treating Latin-form pleadings required *illicite* specifically. Researchers should not assume that a general allegation of wrongdoing substitutes for this term where it was technically required.
Why It Matters in Research
This term surfaces almost exclusively in pre-20th century sources dealing with criminal pleading — particularly indictments for public order offenses such as riot, unlawful assembly, and affray. Its significance is procedural, not substantive: the omission of *illicite* from an indictment where the act was unlawful by nature could be grounds for challenge or demurrer under classical pleading rules.
Researchers working with historical indictment forms, early American criminal procedure materials, or English common law pleading manuals will encounter this term as a standard element of pleading draftsmanship. It is unlikely to appear in modern practice, where Latin pleading terms have been displaced by plain-language requirements under procedural codes. However, corpus researchers examining early colonial or antebellum American criminal records, English Crown Court precedents, or treatises on criminal pleading will find it used with consistent technical meaning.
The Hawkins *Pleas of the Crown* citation (c. 25, § 96) that appears in all three source dictionaries points to a specific pleading authority; researchers citing this passage should note that Bouvier's cites it as § 98, a minor variant worth checking against the primary source.
One navigational trap: do not confuse this with *illicitus*, the adjective form meaning "unlawful" or "forbidden," which appears in substantive legal maxims rather than pleading practice. *Illicite* is the adverbial form and its role is functional — it qualifies the act as charged, not the act as defined.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries are in substantial agreement. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Bouvier's reproduce nearly identical language, each defining *illicite* as "unlawfully" and characterizing it as a term of art in indictment pleading, required where the act is unlawful — riot being the standard illustrative example. Black's 2nd edition adds the Latin language identifier explicitly.
The unanimity across these dictionaries reflects a shared reliance on Hawkins as the underlying authority. None of the entries engages with whether the requirement was jurisdictionally uniform or subject to exception; the definitions present the rule without qualification. What these sources do not address is the procedural fate of *illicite* under 19th-century code pleading reforms, which increasingly displaced Latin terminology in American practice. Researchers should not read the dictionary entries as reflecting practice under reformed pleading systems.
Jurisdictional Note
The requirement of *illicite* or its English equivalent "unlawfully" in indictments was a feature of common law pleading applicable in English courts and American jurisdictions following the common law tradition. Its force diminished significantly in American jurisdictions that adopted Field Code-style pleading reforms beginning in the mid-19th century.