Definition
A Latin term from Roman and medieval common law meaning "to move," "to set in motion," or "to commence." In legal usage, *movere* most commonly appears in the phrase *movere litem* — to commence or bring a suit. The term conveys the act of initiating legal proceedings, stirring a matter into formal legal motion, or originating an action before a tribunal.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To move; to set in motion physically or figuratively; to prompt action or emotion.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; *movere* is the Latin root underlying the English word "move," carrying senses of physical displacement, emotional stirring, and prompting to action.
The ordinary senses of "move" are broad and informal. The legal significance of *movere* is narrower and procedural — it marks the formal origination of a legal action, not merely any motion or persuasive act. Researchers encountering the term in medieval legal Latin should read it as a technical marker for commencement, not simply activity or motion.
Why It Matters in Research
*Movere* is not a standalone doctrine but a procedural term embedded in Latin legal formulae, principally in Bracton and other early common law treatises. Researchers working with medieval English legal sources will encounter it almost exclusively in Latin passages, where precise translation carries legal weight. The distinction between *movere litem* (commencing a suit) and related phrases such as *instituere actionem* or *ponere in placitum* is meaningful — different formulae signal different procedural contexts or stages of litigation.
The phrase *alia vice movit ei litem de eadem terra* (on another occasion commenced a suit against him for the same land) is illustrative: this kind of formulation appears in Bracton's discussion of prior claims and is relevant to questions of prior pleading, res judicata, and the significance of a party's litigation history in land disputes. Researchers examining property actions in Bracton should watch for *movere* as an indicator of prior proceedings, which could bear on whether a claim had already been litigated.
Because *movere* appears in highly formulaic Latin legal writing, its meaning is stable across the sources where it appears — but researchers should be alert to context. When used transitively with *litem* as the object, it reliably means commencement of a suit. When used more loosely (to stir, to agitate), it may describe procedural or substantive activity within ongoing proceedings rather than initiation. The distinction matters when tracing the procedural posture of historical actions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is succinct but precise, correctly identifying the dual senses of the term: the broad Latin meaning (to move, stir, agitate) and the specific legal meaning (to originate or commence a proceeding). Burrill supports the *movere litem* formula with a direct citation to Bracton, which grounds the term firmly in the early English common law tradition.
Historical dictionaries generally do not treat *movere* as a term of art beyond this procedural formula. Its importance is principally philological — it is a key verb in the Latin vocabulary of medieval English legal pleading and treatise writing. No significant divergence among historical sources is apparent; the term is too basic and well-defined in its legal application to generate interpretive controversy.
What historical dictionaries do not supply, and what researchers should seek elsewhere, is the broader doctrinal context in which *movere litem* operated — particularly how Bracton and his contemporaries treated the commencement of a suit as a formal legal event with consequences for subsequent proceedings.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Commencement of Actions; Bracton and the Early Common Law; Latin Legal Terminology in Pleading.