Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning "to read" or "to be read." Appearing in medieval English legal records and documents, *lire* functioned as a procedural directive indicating that a document, ordinance, or charter was to be read aloud — typically before an assembly, court, or other formal gathering. The phrase *a lire quatre foiz par an* ("to be read four times per year") illustrates its use as a requirement of periodic public reading, a common mechanism for ensuring awareness of legal obligations in an era of widespread illiteracy.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The Manx shearwater, a seabird.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed; *lire* was not part of the general English vocabulary in 1913.
The gap here is total. The common English word *lire* (to the extent it appears at all) has no connection to its Law French legal counterpart. Researchers encountering *lire* in historical legal documents should not expect any dictionary of common English to be of assistance.
Why It Matters in Research
This term matters almost exclusively to researchers working in medieval English legal records, early statutes, and documents drawing on the Law French conventions of the Norman and Plantagenet periods. Several practical points:
**Reading requirements as substantive law.** The phrase *a lire quatre foiz par an*, cited in Burrill in connection with the Articles upon the Charters (*Articuli super Cartas*, 1300), reflects a genuine legal obligation — that certain foundational documents, including Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest, were required to be read publicly in county courts twice a year (and in some formulations more frequently). This was not mere ceremony; failure to perform the reading could carry legal consequences. Researchers tracing the history of constitutional documents, public notice requirements, or the enforcement of royal charters will find *lire* embedded in that broader procedural framework.
**Law French as a research challenge.** Law French terms like *lire* are scattered throughout Year Books, plea rolls, and early statute collections without translation or gloss. Researchers using Law Mind's historical corpus should be alert that the same concept may appear in Latin (*legatur*, *legi*) in one document and Law French (*lire*) in another, particularly across the transition periods of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
**Archival traps.** The term is short and easily misread or overlooked as a scribal abbreviation. In manuscript sources, it may appear contracted or conflated with similar-looking terms. Paleographic care is warranted.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is spare but accurate: "To read; to be read," followed by the illustrative phrase from the Articuli super Cartas. Burrill correctly identifies this as Law French and provides a specific documentary anchor, which is more than many brief Law French entries receive in historical dictionaries.
Other major historical law dictionaries — Jacob's *Law Dictionary*, Tomlin's *Law Dictionary*, Bouvier's — do not appear to carry a dedicated entry for *lire* as a Law French term, reflecting the degree to which Law French vocabulary was already fading from active legal use by the time those works were compiled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Researchers relying solely on those later dictionaries would find no entry and might incorrectly conclude the term is a scribal error or abbreviation.
No major historical dictionary adds substantively to what Burrill provides. For fuller treatment of the Articuli super Cartas and the reading requirements it imposed, researchers should consult specialist works on medieval English constitutional history rather than general legal dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the English common law tradition and its Law French inheritance. It has no counterpart in American legal usage and will not appear in any domestic U.S. legal source after the colonial period, if at all.