Definition
A Latin term from old conveyancing meaning "to release." Relaxare appears in formal release instruments of medieval and early modern English land law, functioning as the operative verb of conveyance by which a grantor discharged or freed an interest in property. The related perfect-tense forms relaxavi and relaxasse — meaning "I have released" and "to have released" — appear in the formal recitals of such instruments and carry the same operative legal effect.
In its technical application, relaxare describes the act of freeing an encumbered or restricted estate, discharging it from conditions, claims, or limitations so that the recipient holds the interest freely and absolutely.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Relaxare" has no standard entry in modern English dictionaries; it exists as a Latin infinitive meaning to loosen, slacken, or relieve tension.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately entered; the English derivative "relax" is defined as to make less tense, rigid, or firm; to slacken; to loosen.
The gap between the physical or physiological sense of loosening and the legal sense is instructive rather than incidental. In conveyancing, relaxare carried a precise metaphorical extension: just as one loosens physical restraints, the grantor loosens the legal fetters on an estate, freeing it from prior claims or encumbrances. The metaphor was conscious and deliberate, not merely etymological.
Common Confusion
Relaxare is sometimes treated as simply a Latin synonym for the English word "release," but the two are not perfectly interchangeable in historical sources. Release, as a term of art in English conveyancing, could operate through several distinct legal mechanisms. Relaxare is specifically the Latin operative word used in formal instruments to effect that release, and its presence in a document signals a particular conveyancing form rather than merely the general concept of discharge. Researchers should not assume that every use of "release" in English sources maps cleanly onto instruments using relaxare, or vice versa.
Why It Matters in Research
Relaxare appears almost exclusively in pre-modern English conveyancing instruments and in legal commentary on those instruments. Researchers working in early English land law, feudal tenure, or the history of conveyancing will encounter it in original documents and in learned commentary through the seventeenth century. Its practical use fades after conveyancing practice modernized and Latin was progressively excluded from legal instruments.
The Burrill entry provides the most useful navigational detail: the reference to Lampet's Case (10 Co. 52b) connects relaxare to a broader doctrinal discussion of how Latin operative words in conveyances were analyzed and interpreted by common law courts. The gloss in that case — distinguishing laxare (to set prisoners free from fetters) from relaxare (to do it quickly, and by extension to free fettered estates) — is evidence that courts treated the choice of Latin operative word as legally significant, not merely stylistic. Researchers examining questions of operative words in conveyances, or the technical requirements of release instruments, should treat Lampet's Case as essential context.
For corpus researchers, relaxare is a strong signal that a document is either a primary conveyancing instrument from before the eighteenth century or a treatise or case discussing such instruments. It does not appear in procedural, criminal, or equitable contexts. Littleton's Tenures (§ 445), cited uniformly across the source dictionaries, is the foundational reference and should be the first stop for understanding the term's original technical setting.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill — agree on the core definition and cite Littleton § 445 as the authority. The entries are substantively consistent. Black's entries are brief and functional. Burrill adds the interpretive gloss from Lampet's Case, which is the most analytically valuable material across all three sources and the only entry that situates relaxare within a doctrinal argument rather than simply defining it. Researchers relying solely on Black's will miss this doctrinal layer.
No source dictionary addresses the decline of relaxare in practice or the transition to English-language release instruments, a gap worth noting for researchers tracing the term across time periods.
Jurisdictional Note
Relaxare is a term of English common law and appears in the English conveyancing tradition. It has no independent development in American law; where it appears in American sources it is in direct reference to English authorities or in historical commentary on land law derived from English practice.