Definition
A Latin term from the civil law and old English law meaning to bequeath — to leave or give property by will, or to make a gift in anticipation of death. In Scots law, the equivalent vernacular form is "to legate." The term is the verbal root from which *legatum* (legacy) and *legatarius* (legatee) derive, and it captures the act of testamentary disposition rather than a resulting interest or instrument.
In the civil law, *legare* applied to both real and personal property. Bracton carried this usage into early English legal writing, employing both *legare fundum* (to bequeath land) and *legare terram* (to bequeath land), reflecting a broader civil-law conception that did not confine testamentary gifts to movables. This stands in contrast to the later common law tradition, which restricted the term "bequest" to personal property and used "devise" for real property.
Common Confusion
*Legare* is the act of bequeathing; *legatum* is the resulting legacy or bequest itself; *legatarius* is the person who receives it. Researchers encountering any of these terms in Latin legal texts should be careful not to conflate the verb with its nominal derivatives. In early sources, *legare* can appear where modern usage would say "devise" (for land) or "bequest" (for personalty), because the civil law drew no such sharp line.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears most often in Latin legal sources — the Institutes, the Digest, Bracton — rather than in post-medieval common law materials. Researchers working in Anglo-American legal history should be alert to two traps. First, Bracton's use of *legare* for land (*legare terram*, *legare fundum*) reflects civilian influence and predates the sharp common law divide between devising realty and bequeathing personalty. Treating Bracton's usage as equivalent to the later English "bequest" (confined to personal property) will produce anachronistic readings. Second, the Scots usage "to legate" survived longer as a vernacular form and appears in Kames and other Scottish institutional writers, making it a signal that a source has Scottish rather than English legal provenance.
For corpus researchers tracing the development of legacy and testamentary law, *legare* is the functional ancestor of the entire "legacy" family of terms. Searching historical sources on wills and succession without accounting for the Latin root will miss significant early material.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions) are consistent and brief, defining *legare* as "to bequeath; to leave or give by will; to give in anticipation of death," and noting the Scots equivalent "to legate." Neither edition elaborates on the civil law scope or its application to real property.
Burrill adds meaningful depth. He references the Institutes (2.20), the Digest (30.12, 15 et seq.), Bracton (fol. 18b), the Statute of Merton (c. 2), and Kames' Equity, and he flags explicitly that in the civil law *legare* applied to real as well as personal property — a point Black's omits. The specific phrases *legare fundum* and *legare terram* from Bracton appear only in Burrill, making his entry the most instructive for researchers working with early English sources. Where Black's treats the term as a flat synonym for "bequeath," Burrill situates it within a broader doctrinal tradition. Neither dictionary addresses why the term disappeared from active English legal usage or traces the transition to the devise/bequest distinction.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Legacy; Testamentary Disposition; Devise and Bequest