Definition
A Latin term from the civil and common law meaning to name, to nominate, or to appoint. In legal contexts, *nominare* describes the act of designating a person by name for a particular office, role, or function — most often in the context of ecclesiastical appointments, arbitration, or the selection of candidates for a position requiring formal designation. The term appears in Latin legal maxims, pleadings, and instruments where the act of naming carries legal effect, distinguishing a mere reference to a person from a deliberate, binding designation.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter *nominare* primarily in two contexts: medieval and early modern ecclesiastical law (where the power to nominate candidates for church offices was a serious legal and political matter) and in Latin pleadings or instruments of the civil law tradition. The term is unlikely to appear in modern common law documents except as a historical artifact or in scholarly annotation of older sources.
When reading early English or continental legal texts, distinguish *nominare* from related acts such as *eligere* (to elect) and *instituere* (to institute or install). Nomination and institution were legally distinct steps in ecclesiastical appointment — the patron *nominated*, the bishop *instituted*. Conflating these steps in historical research distorts the legal relationship being described.
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should be alert to the term appearing in discussions of advowson, patronage, and the ius patronatus, as well as in arbitration contexts where parties were required to name an arbitrator within a specified time. In those procedural settings, *nominare* signifies a formal, time-sensitive legal act, not a casual suggestion.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill defines *nominare* concisely as "[t]o name; to nominate; to appoint," citing Calvin's *Lexicon Juridicum* (*Calv. Lex.*), a standard reference for Latin legal terminology in the civil law tradition. The definition is accurate but spare, offering no contextual guidance on where the term operates or how it interacts with adjacent legal concepts.
Historical legal dictionaries generally treat *nominare* as a gateway entry — useful for confirming that a Latin text carries the sense of formal designation, but not themselves a guide to the substantive law governing nominations in any particular domain. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as a translation aid and look to substantive sources on ecclesiastical law, civil procedure, or arbitration for the legal consequences that attach to the act of *nominare* in context.