Definition
An Anglo-Norman legal term denoting levity or lightness of speech; looseness or frivolity of discourse. The term appears in early English legal usage in the phrase *de legerte de jaungle*, meaning levity of discourse or idle, unguarded talk. It was used to describe a quality of speech considered unbecoming or insufficiently serious in a legal or formal context.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *legerte* will almost certainly find it in medieval or early common law sources written in Law French or Anglo-Norman, where it appears as a term of criticism applied to speech or testimony. The term is narrow in historical usage and does not carry forward into modern legal vocabulary in any recognizable form. Its survival in the corpus is essentially antiquarian — useful for interpreting early English legal texts, particularly those drawing on Britton (the 13th-century legal treatise attributed to Edward I), where the phrase *de legerte de jaungle* appears. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should treat this term as a period marker: its presence signals a source rooted in the Anglo-Norman tradition of English law, likely predating or contemporary with the early Year Books. Do not expect to find it in equity sources, American materials, or any post-17th-century English legal writing. Cross-reference with other Law French terms in the corpus when building a picture of early pleading standards or evidentiary credibility concepts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only direct historical dictionary entry recovered for this term, and that entry is fragmentary — it supplies the Law French derivation (from *leger*, meaning light or trifling) and the source reference to Britton, chapter 96, but does not elaborate on the legal context in which the term operated. The incompleteness of the Burrill entry is itself informative: it suggests the term was already archaic by the time Burrill compiled his dictionary in the mid-19th century, preserved as a curiosity of Law French vocabulary rather than as a term with ongoing practical application. No other major historical legal dictionaries in the standard shelf — including Bouvier, Black, or Tomlin — appear to carry this term, which underscores its narrow and specialized provenance. Researchers should go directly to Britton for the primary usage, as that source appears to be the principal authority Burrill himself relied upon.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is confined to the early English common law tradition and has no equivalent usage in American law or in civil law jurisdictions. It is purely a historical artifact of the Anglo-Norman legal vocabulary.