Definition
Pue is a Law French term meaning "little" or "a little." It appears almost exclusively in the fixed phrase *al pue et pue*, meaning "by little and little" — that is, gradually, incrementally, or by degrees. The phrase was used in older legal discourse to describe a process occurring in small, successive steps rather than all at once.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To make a low whistling sound; to chirp, as birds.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To make a low whistling sound; to chirp, as birds. (Halliwell.)
The English word "pue" — to the extent it survives in general vocabulary at all — carries a phonetic, birdlike meaning entirely unrelated to its legal function. The legal term is Law French in origin and has no meaningful connection to this English homophone. Researchers encountering "pue" in historical legal manuscripts should not read it as an English word.
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Why It Matters in Research
Pue is a term encountered almost exclusively in pre-modern legal records, Year Books, and treatises where Law French was the working language of English courts. It does not appear as a standalone operative term in modern legal instruments; its significance is purely historical and interpretive.
The primary research trap is simple: the term is visually identical to an obscure English verb of no legal relevance. A researcher unfamiliar with Law French who encounters "pue" in a manuscript context may either misread it or search for it as an English term, producing no useful results. Recognizing it as a Law French adjective meaning "little" immediately clarifies the surrounding construction.
The phrase *al pue et pue* functions as a legal adverbial expression describing gradual or incremental action. It is structurally similar to other reduplicative Law French adverbials (compare *de die in diem*, day by day, in the Latin tradition). In practice, the phrase could arise in contexts involving the slow accumulation of a nuisance, the gradual encroachment on a right, or the piecemeal performance of an obligation — anywhere the law needed to characterize something as happening step by step rather than in a single event.
Researchers working in early English real property law, nuisance doctrine, or prescription-based claims may encounter this phrase when consulting older abridgments, glossaries, or Year Book commentaries. Burrill is the primary modern-accessible source for this term; it is absent from most American legal dictionaries, which reflects its complete obsolescence in post-colonial legal practice.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only entry among standard historical legal dictionaries. The entry is minimal: "L. Fr. A little. *Al pue et pue*; by little and little. Kelham." The citation to Kelham refers to Robert Kelham's *A Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779), which remains a foundational reference for Law French vocabulary in English legal records.
No entry appears in Black's, Bouvier's, or other American legal dictionaries, which is consistent with the term's status as archaic legal vocabulary with no surviving operational use. The absence from American sources is not a gap — the term simply never crossed into the American legal tradition in any meaningful way.
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Jurisdictional Note
Pue and its associated phrase belong exclusively to the English common law tradition as inherited through Law French. The term has no independent presence in Scottish, civil law, or American jurisdictions.
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