Definition
In old European law, to lay down; to place or set something down. A Latin term appearing in early medieval legal texts, particularly in Germanic customary law compilations such as the Lex Alamannorum. Its use was procedural or transactional in character, likely describing the physical act of depositing an object — a pledge, a document, or an item of property — as part of a formal legal act.
Why It Matters in Research
PAUSARE is a term of narrow historical scope. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in the context of early medieval European law, particularly in Latin transcriptions of Germanic tribal codes. Its appearance in Burrill points to Spelman's Glossarium Archaeologicum as a secondary source, meaning the evidential chain runs through Spelman rather than through direct statutory or case law citation. Researchers working in Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, or Alamannic legal materials should treat it as a term of art in those specific corpora rather than as a term with ongoing common law development.
The significance of the physical gesture in early Germanic law should not be underestimated. Formal legal acts in these systems frequently required a tangible, performative element — the laying down of a staff, a glove, or a symbolic object to effectuate transfer, surrender, or pledge. PAUSARE likely describes that physical component of a legal ceremony rather than an abstract legal concept. Researchers should be cautious about inferring a precise doctrinal meaning without examining the surrounding passage in the Lex Alamannorum directly, as the term's weight in any given instance depends heavily on context.
Cross-reference with related Latin terms used in early medieval law — particularly those describing pledge, deposit, and formal delivery — will be necessary to place PAUSARE correctly within a given source. Do not assume the term carries a fixed technical meaning portable across different Germanic legal texts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is minimal: a Latin gloss, a single statutory citation to the Lex Alamannorum (title 45), and a reference to Spelman. No further elaboration is offered, and no case law or later common law usage is noted. This reflects the term's status as a historical curiosity rather than a working term of Anglo-American jurisprudence.
Burrill includes PAUSARE as part of his broader effort to document the Latin legal vocabulary of early European law that underlies, at least genealogically, later common law development. Its placement in the dictionary signals that the term was encountered by legal scholars working in medieval sources and required identification, not that it had ongoing doctrinal relevance.
No other standard historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus appear to carry this term. The absence of entries in later dictionaries such as Black's confirms that PAUSARE did not migrate into common law usage. Researchers should rely on Spelman's Glossarium for the fullest available treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to early medieval Germanic customary law, principally as codified in the Lex Alamannorum. It has no recognized footprint in English common law, American law, or any modern civil law system.