Definition
In historical legal usage, *ocassare* is a Latin term meaning to quash, to render void, or to break. It describes the act of nullifying or annulling a legal instrument, proceeding, or obligation — stripping it of force and effect. The term appears in medieval and early modern legal writing, particularly in contexts where courts or sovereigns extinguished writs, judgments, or other legal acts.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with Latin-language legal records, Year Books, ecclesiastical court documents, or early common law pleadings may encounter *ocassare* in its verb form or in derived constructions. It belongs to a family of Latin terms used to describe different modes of legal nullification — a distinction that mattered procedurally, because the grounds and consequences of quashing differed from those of voiding or setting aside. When indexing or searching digitized manuscript sources, note that scribal variation in medieval Latin means the term may appear in alternate spellings, including *ocasare* or *ocassari*. Because it does not survive into modern legal vocabulary as an operative term, it will not appear in contemporary statutes or case law; its relevance is almost entirely confined to historical legal corpus research.
Researchers should take care not to assume the term is interchangeable with *cassare* (to quash or annul), though the two share a root and overlapping meaning. Whether *ocassare* carried a distinct procedural shade from *cassare* in a given document may require consulting the surrounding text and genre of the source.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) provides the sole dictionary entry located in the Law Mind corpus: "To quash; to render void; to break." The definition is minimal, as expected for a term that had already receded from active legal use by the time Black's was compiled. Black's offers no example of usage, no citation, and no procedural context. Researchers should treat this entry as a signpost rather than a complete account. For fuller treatment, Latin legal glossaries and medieval legal dictionaries — such as Du Cange's *Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis* — are better suited to tracing the term's usage across jurisdictions and periods. Black's entry is consistent with the sense preserved in those sources but adds nothing beyond the bare definition.