Definition
A Latin term of medieval English and Scots law meaning a taking or seizure of goods. Prisa denotes the act by which an officer or official authority physically appropriated property — most commonly goods seized by sheriffs in the exercise of their legal duties. The term appears primarily in early legal records and formulaic pleading language, and is not in active modern legal use.
Common Language
Wiktionary: No current entry for prisa as an English word.
Webster's 1913: Not listed as an English entry; the term remained a term of art in legal Latin contexts.
The closest common English relative is the French-derived word "prize" (as in the capture of a vessel or goods), from which prisa descends. The legal term is narrower and more archaic — referring specifically to official seizure under authority of law, not to a reward or competitive prize in any modern sense.
Common Confusion
Prisa is easily confused with prise (its French-law cognate) and with the broader concept of prizage or prisage, which referred to the Crown's customary right to take a portion of imported wine. These are related but distinct: prise and prisage describe a royal prerogative levy, while prisa is the more general act of taking or seizure. Researchers working in medieval English administrative records should be attentive to context when these terms appear in proximity.
Why It Matters in Research
Prisa appears almost exclusively in pre-modern English and Scots legal sources — specifically in records, writs, and formularies dealing with sheriffs' conduct and the exercise of official seizure power. The phrase de prisis factis per vicecomites (of takings made by sheriffs), cited in Fleta, signals the term's practical home: accountability proceedings for goods taken in the course of official duties.
Researchers working in medieval administrative law, early Scots law, or early English procedural records will encounter prisa in contexts involving Crown officers, exchequer proceedings, and complaints about official misconduct or excess. It is not a term that survived into modern common law vocabulary, so its presence in a source is itself a dating signal — documents using prisa without quotation or historical reference are almost certainly pre-modern.
Cross-reference with prise and prisage is essential. Burrill treats these as related but separate entries, and researchers should follow that distinction rather than treating the terms as interchangeable. The difference matters for determining whether a source concerns a specific royal levy (prisage), a general seizure power (prisa), or a contractual or maritime taking (prise in its broader sense).
Fleta, the thirteenth-century English legal treatise, is the primary source for the specific formulaic usages Burrill cites. Skene's De Verborum Significatione, a glossary of Scots legal terms published in 1597, confirms the term's currency in Scots legal practice and provides a reference point for researchers working in Scottish historical records.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the foundational entry and is the primary source here. Burrill correctly identifies the dual jurisdictional reach of prisa — English and Scots — and anchors the definition in Spelman's Glossarium (a standard authority for medieval Latin legal terminology), Fleta, and Skene's glossary.
The entry is characteristically spare: Burrill supplies the textual authorities and directs the reader to the companion entry for prise, but does not elaborate on the practical operation of the seizure power or the procedural contexts in which disputes over prisa were litigated. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as a starting point for source identification rather than a complete account of the term's legal function. Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum and Fleta itself remain the primary resources for understanding how prisa was actually used in medieval English legal proceedings.
No modern legal dictionary treats prisa as a live term. Its absence from contemporary sources is not a gap — it accurately reflects the term's historical status.
Jurisdictional Note
Prisa was current in both English and Scots law during the medieval and early modern periods. Skene's glossary confirms independent usage in Scots legal practice. Researchers should not assume that a usage found in an English source will map precisely onto Scots practice, and should consult jurisdiction-specific materials when working with Scottish records.