Definition
An archaic Anglo-French legal term meaning to erase, scrape, or obliterate writing on a document. Derived from the Latin *radere* (to scrape), the term appears in early English legal records to describe the physical act of removing or canceling written text, typically on parchment. In legal contexts, such erasure was a matter of significant consequence, as alterations to formal instruments — deeds, writs, bonds, and court records — raised questions of fraud, forgery, or the validity of the document itself.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An archaic spelling of *rear*, meaning the back portion or area behind a building or other structure.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; treated as an obsolete variant of *rear*.
The gap here is complete: the common survival of *rere* points to spatial meaning (behind, at the back), while the legal term *rere* is a verb of action — to scrape or erase — with no spatial sense whatsoever. A researcher encountering *rere* in a historical legal manuscript should not read it as a directional term.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a minor but genuine trap for researchers working in early English legal manuscripts, Year Books, or medieval plea rolls. The word is rare and appears almost exclusively in technical discussions of documentary fraud or alteration. Its significance lies not in frequency but in consequence: a finding that a document had been *rered* — scraped or erased — could render the instrument void or suspect, affect its admissibility, and expose a party to criminal liability for forgery.
Researchers should note two practical points. First, *rere* as a legal term of art is almost entirely absent from modern legal dictionaries; Burrill preserves it where later compilations do not. Second, because the word's common meaning points in a completely different direction (spatial, architectural), misreading is easy when context is thin. When encountered in a medieval or early modern legal document, check surrounding terms for references to instruments, writings, or seals — context will usually confirm the erasure sense.
The term connects naturally to broader documentary integrity questions: the law surrounding rasure, interlineation, and alteration of deeds was a live and contested area of medieval and early modern practice. Instruments showing signs of physical alteration were routinely challenged, and courts developed rules about when an apparent erasure would vitiate an otherwise valid document versus when it could be explained away.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary source preserving this term in the Anglo-American legal dictionary tradition. Burrill attributes the definition to Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779), which is the deeper authority here — Kelham was the standard reference for Norman-French legal vocabulary, and Burrill is essentially transmitting Kelham's gloss. This chain of attribution is worth noting: the term's authority rests on lexicographical tradition rooted in Norman-French usage rather than on common law doctrine developed through reported cases.
Later legal dictionaries, including Black's and Bouvier's, do not carry this entry. Researchers relying solely on those sources will not find it. This is a case where Burrill's broader coverage of Anglo-French vocabulary gives it genuine research value over more selective compilations.