Definition
An obsolete Law French term with no single fixed meaning in the modern legal lexicon. In medieval English legal texts and pleadings, *reson* functioned as a broad conceptual word carrying any of the following senses depending on context: reason, truth, right, title, justice, an act, an argument, a charge, an expression, a method, a case, an article, or a point in dispute. Its meaning was determined almost entirely by the phrase or formula in which it appeared. The term is encountered almost exclusively in Law French legal records, Year Books, and early English common law proceedings predating the gradual displacement of Law French from English courts.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): *Reson* has no recognized entry in modern English. It is an archaic or obsolete spelling variant, not a word in active use.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not list *reson* as an independent entry. It would have been understood, if at all, as an older spelling of *reason* — the faculty of rational thought, or a justification or motive for an act.
The gap between the common understanding of *reason* and the legal use of *reson* is substantial. In common English, *reason* is a unitary concept. In Law French usage, *reson* was a technical placeholder capable of meaning title, evidence, charge, or point of argument depending entirely on the surrounding formula — a flexibility no modern equivalent of the word retains.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with Year Books, early plea rolls, or Norman French legal manuscripts will encounter *reson* in formulaic phrases whose meaning cannot be determined by reference to the modern word *reason*. The same orthographic form conceals at least a dozen distinct legal concepts, so reading *reson* as simply *reason* in the colloquial sense will frequently produce a mistaken interpretation of the document.
Several recurring phrases require particular attention:
- *De reson* — glossed as "in reason," but often functioning as an assertion of legal right or justification
- *Funde sa reson* — meaning "grounds his title," a pleading formula touching the basis of a party's claim
- *Feare noz reson* — meaning "make us satisfaction," implying a demand for remedy or redress rather than any argumentative sense
- *Deur resons* — referring to "two circumstances," used in evidentiary or argumentative enumeration
- *Ses resons* — glossed as "his evidences," meaning the proofs or grounds offered by a party
This pattern of compound and possessive phrases is the primary environment in which *reson* appears. A researcher who encounters the word in isolation in an archival source should look immediately to the surrounding formula before assigning any particular meaning.
The term also illustrates a broader challenge in the Law Mind corpus: Law French legal vocabulary was never fully standardized, and spelling varied considerably across centuries and scribes. *Reson* may appear as *resoun*, *raison*, *reison*, or in Anglicized forms, particularly in later transcriptions. Cross-referencing against Kelham's Law French dictionary (cited by Burrill) and Godefroy's *Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française* is advisable when a specific phrase requires close interpretation.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary authority on record for this term in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill draws directly on Kelham's *Dictionary of the Norman or Old French Language* (1779), which remains the standard reference work for Law French vocabulary of this type. Burrill's entry is essentially a condensed transmission of Kelham's glossary, listing the range of meanings without resolving how to distinguish among them contextually — a limitation researchers should note.
No entry for *reson* appears to exist in Bouvier, Black, or other standard common-law dictionaries in the historical legal reference tradition, reflecting the term's status as a pure Law French archaism rather than a term that migrated into systematic Anglo-American legal vocabulary. The absence from those sources itself signals that *reson* had ceased to function as an operative legal term before the modern dictionary tradition consolidated.
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Jurisdictional Note
*Reson* is relevant exclusively to English legal history and to jurisdictions whose early law derived from Norman French pleading practice. It has no operative meaning in modern American, Canadian, or Commonwealth law and will not be encountered in any post-Law French legal context.
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