Definition
A Latin adverb meaning "now" or "at the present time." In legal usage, NUNC rarely appears in isolation. It functions almost exclusively as the first element of the compound phrase NUNC PRO TUNC ("now for then"), which is the operative legal term of art. Encountered alone, NUNC typically signals an incomplete or abbreviated reference to that phrase, or appears in the ecclesiastical phrase NUNC DIMITTIS.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An ellipsis of "Nunc dimittis" — the opening words of the canticle from the Gospel of Luke, used in liturgical contexts to signify a departure or a peaceful release.
Historical common usage (Latin): An adverb meaning "now, at the present time," typically contrasted with past time (as against tum, tunc, antea, quondam). Its force is demonstrative — pointing to what is present to the speaker or writer at the moment of utterance.
The gap between common and legal meaning is not a conflict so much as a narrowing: legal usage strips NUNC of independent significance and presses it into service as a fixed prefix. A researcher encountering NUNC in a legal document almost never needs its bare Latin meaning; they need to understand the compound phrase it anchors.
Common Confusion
NUNC is sometimes cited or indexed as a standalone entry in older legal dictionaries and digests when the author or indexer has alphabetized the compound NUNC PRO TUNC under its first word. Researchers should treat any bare reference to NUNC in a legal source as a pointer to NUNC PRO TUNC and look to that entry for substantive content. The ecclesiastical NUNC DIMITTIS is an unrelated phrase that appears occasionally in probate and ecclesiastical law contexts (signifying formal discharge or permission to depart) and should not be confused with the procedural doctrine.
Why It Matters in Research
The chief research hazard with NUNC is indexing fragmentation. Older digests, treatises, and reporters sometimes alphabetize under N-U-N-C rather than under the full compound phrase, leaving researchers who search only for NUNC PRO TUNC to miss relevant entries, and vice versa. When working in pre-twentieth-century materials — including the Rapalje & Lawrence dictionary itself — check both the bare entry for NUNC and the compound entry. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry reproduced in the source material above does not contain a substantive definition of NUNC as a standalone term; the relevant content in that volume is carried under NUNC PRO TUNC.
Ecclesiastical law sources, particularly those dealing with marriage nullity, dissolution, and probate, may use NUNC DIMITTIS as a term of discharge. Researchers working in those areas should not conflate that usage with the procedural doctrine of NUNC PRO TUNC.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence does not provide an independent substantive entry for NUNC. The source material associated with this term in that volume concerns nullity of marriage decrees — content belonging to a neighboring entry, not to NUNC itself. This reflects a common feature of nineteenth-century legal dictionaries: entries were sometimes indexed or paginated in ways that placed introductory Latin words as headings over content that properly belongs to the compound phrase that follows. Researchers using the Rapalje & Lawrence dictionary should navigate directly to NUNC PRO TUNC for operative doctrine.
No historical legal dictionary surveyed treats NUNC as a self-sufficient term of art. Its presence in legal lexicography is entirely parasitic on the compound phrases it introduces.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: NUNC PRO TUNC