NISSA - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

NISSAAuthored

The Law Mind • 406 words

Definition

Nissa does not appear as a defined legal term in the available source material. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry provided does not contain a definition for this term; the supplied text is a fragment from an unrelated entry (covering owelty of exchange, oversman, and related Scots law terms).

Without a retrievable definition from the indexed corpus, no authoritative plain-English explanation can be confirmed for this term.

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Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering "nissa" in historical legal sources should proceed with caution on several fronts.

First, confirm the source jurisdiction. The term may be specific to Scots law, civil law, or a non-English legal tradition and may not appear in standard Anglo-American dictionaries at all. Historical legal dictionaries compiled for American or English practice — including Rapalje & Lawrence — would not necessarily index terms drawn from continental, ecclesiastical, or Islamic legal systems.

Second, check for transcription or OCR error. In digitized historical corpora, terms can be garbled by optical character recognition, particularly when source documents use archaic typefaces or non-Latin characters. "Nissa" may be a corrupted rendering of another term entirely.

Third, if this term appears in a document concerning Islamic or Jewish family law — particularly divorce or marital property — researchers should consult specialized sources outside the common law dictionary tradition. In Islamic law, "nisab" refers to a minimum threshold of wealth triggering zakat obligations, and in Jewish law, "nisan" is a calendar month with legal significance in certain religious contexts. Neither is a direct match, but the phonetic proximity warrants attention in those research contexts.

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Historical Dictionary Support

The Rapalje & Lawrence source material provided does not contain an entry for "nissa." The text fragment supplied covers owelty of exchange, owelty of partition, oversman (a Scots law umpire), and overt act — none of which relates to this term. It is possible that "nissa" does not appear in this dictionary, or that the relevant page was not indexed in the available corpus extract.

No synthesis across historical dictionary sources is possible on the current record. Researchers relying on Law Mind corpus sources should treat this as an unconfirmed term pending identification of a valid source entry.

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NISSAmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

value is made, and a sum of money or OVERSMAN.-In the Scotch law, an some other compensation is given by the umpire. OVERSIGHT, (in a will). Yelv. 73. OVERT.-Open. OVERT АСТ. - owner of the less valuable land to the owner of the other land, this compensation is said to be given for owelty of exchange,. i. e. to equalize the value. 2. Owelty of partition.-So, where a partition is made of property which 1. Treason. An open act, or one cannot be divided into shares of equal consisting of something stronger than value (as where two houses descend to mere words, and evidencing a deliberate intention in the mind of the person doing it. The phrase is chiefly used in the law of treason, it being a rule that a treasonable intention is not punishable unless it is evidenced by some overt act. Thus, to provide weapons or ammunition for the purpose of killing the king, or to assemble and consult on the means of doing so, is an overt act of treason; but the mere speaking of words is not an overt act. 4 Bl. Com. 79. 2. Conspiracy. -The term is also used in the law of criminal conspiracy to signify any act done by conspirators in pursuance of their intention; the unlawful agreement of which the conspiracy consists constitutes an overt act. Arch. Pr. 972; R. v. Mulcahy, L. R. 3 H. L. 306. OVERT ACT, (in a statute). 5 How. (U. S.) 215, 228. OVERT WORD.-An open, plain word, not to be misunderstood.-Cowell.