Definition
A Latin term from the civil and common law meaning a return, revenue, income, or profit from a thing — most commonly translated as rent. In the civil law tradition, reditus denotes the fruit or income yielded by property broadly conceived. In the common law tradition, it functions as the technical Latin equivalent of rent, describing the compensation or return rendered by a tenant or holder to the party from whom an estate is held.
The term appears primarily in historical legal texts and early English land law. Its several recognized forms carry distinct technical meanings within feudal tenure doctrine.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry in modern general usage. The term is Latin and does not appear in contemporary English outside legal or ecclesiastical historical contexts.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as an English word. Webster's recognizes it only in the context of Latin derivation.
Reditus is pure legal Latin with no meaningful English common-language counterpart. Researchers encountering the term in historical sources should not assume it maps cleanly onto modern "income" or "profit" — its force is specifically tied to the return flowing from a feudal or proprietary relationship, which is narrower than either word suggests today.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Reditus albi — "White rent." Rent payable in silver coin or other money. Associated with the tenure term blanche farm. Contrasted directly with reditus nigri.
Reditus assisus — "Set" or "assessed" rent. A fixed, standing rent; rent reduced to a settled sum and regularly payable. The term reflects the stability and formality of the obligation.
Reditus capitales — "Chief rent." Rent paid by freeholders to discharge all other services owed to the lord. Functions as a commutation payment releasing the freeholder from further obligations of tenure.
Reditus nigri — "Black rent" or "black mail." Rent payable in provisions, corn, labor, or other commodities rather than money. The "black" designation contrasts with the "white" of silver-money rents. This is the origin of the term blackmail in its original, non-criminal sense.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in English land law, feudal tenure, or property history before the nineteenth century will encounter reditus frequently in Latin instruments, court rolls, and treatises. Several navigation points matter:
First, the spelling is unstable in historical sources. Burrill explicitly notes that reditus could also be written redditus, derived from reddere (to yield) rather than redire (to return). Both spellings appear in period documents and early dictionaries. Searches keyed to one form may miss material filed under the other. Always run both variants.
Second, the subtypes carry legal weight that the base term alone does not. A document referencing reditus nigri is making a specific claim about the form of payment — one with implications for the classification of tenure and the obligations attached to it. Treating these subtypes as mere synonyms for generic rent will obscure material distinctions.
Third, the civil law and common law traditions use reditus differently in scope. Civil law sources (and sources influenced by Roman or canon law) use it broadly for any income or return from property, including usufruct and similar interests. Common law sources are tighter, using it predominantly for rent in the tenure sense. A researcher moving between civil law glossaries and English common law treatises should not assume the term carries identical freight in both contexts.
Fourth, the Rapalje & Lawrence fragment connecting the term to Elizabethan and Jacobean statutes suggests it remained relevant in statutory contexts well into the early modern period. Researchers working on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century property legislation should not treat reditus as purely medieval vocabulary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the most thorough treatment, noting both derivations (redire and reddere), citing Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum, and cross-referencing redditus — a usage pattern that confirms the orthographic instability noted above. Burrill also flags Blackstone's dual translation of the term as both "compensation" and "return," which maps onto the civil/common law distinction without quite resolving it.
Black's (2nd Ed.) is primarily useful for its enumeration of subtypes. The definitions of reditus albi, assisus, capitales, and nigri are succinct and accurate, and Black's is the most accessible of the shelf sources for researchers who need quick subtype identification.
Rapalje & Lawrence contributes little to the core definition. The surviving fragment connects reditus to Elizabethan and Jacobean statutory context but without enough surrounding text to assess the full argument.
All three sources treat reditus as a historical term rather than a living one — none suggest it has active modern legal force. Researchers should treat it accordingly: as a key for unlocking historical documents rather than a term with operative significance in current practice.
Jurisdictional Note
Reditus and its subtypes are almost entirely a matter of English land law and its colonial extensions. Civil law jurisdictions used the term in a broader sense but the subtype vocabulary (albi, nigri, assisus, capitales) is distinctly English in practical application. Researchers working in Scottish, Irish, or early American sources derived from English land tenure doctrine may encounter the same terms with equivalent meanings.