Definition
SEN carries two distinct meanings in legal sources, neither of which connects to the monetary sense familiar from modern usage.
1. An ancient word said to signify "justice." Found in early English legal writing and preserved in the legal dictionaries primarily through a citation to Coke upon Littleton (Co. Litt. 61a). The word appears as a historical curiosity rather than an operative term in modern legal instruments or pleadings.
2. In New York legal reporting, an abbreviation for "senator" or "senator's" — used in citation practice within New York reports to identify a contributor, speaker, or party by legislative title.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A unit of Malaysian currency equal to one hundredth of a ringgit; also a coin of that value.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A Japanese coin worth approximately half a cent.
The monetary senses of "sen" — whether Japanese or Malaysian — have no connection to the legal meanings catalogued in the historical dictionaries. A researcher encountering "sen" in an old English legal text or a New York report should not import any monetary meaning. The word is a homograph: the legal senses are entirely independent of the currency term.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are unlikely to encounter "sen" as a live operative term in any modern legal instrument, but may encounter it in two specific archival contexts.
First, in early English legal manuscripts and treatises drawing on Coke, the word surfaces as a gloss on the concept of justice — a philological note more than a doctrinal term. Anyone working through Coke upon Littleton or secondary commentary on it may encounter the reference. It signals nothing substantive about the rule being discussed; it is an aside about word history.
Second, in New York appellate reports, "Sen." as an abbreviation flags a senator's participation or identification. This matters for citation disambiguation: a researcher scanning 19th-century New York reports should not misread the abbreviation as a reference to a court officer or party designation unfamiliar to them.
The Burrill's entry creates an additional trap. The fragments preserved under this headword — referencing an incorporated institution, a judicial statement that a word has "not acquired any definite and fixed legal meaning," and a reference to Roman law on intestate succession — appear to be editorial residue from surrounding entries rather than content properly belonging to "sen." Researchers should not treat the Burrill's fragment as authoritative text for this term; the context strongly suggests typesetting or compilation error in the source.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three substantive historical dictionaries — Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's — are in complete agreement: sen is an ancient word signifying justice, with the sole authority being Co. Litt. 61a. This uniformity reflects the dictionaries drawing from a common ancestor rather than independent verification. None of the three offers any further elaboration, any example of the word in use, or any indication that the term retained operative legal meaning at the time of their publication. It is preserved as a historical note.
Anderson's Dictionary adds the New York abbreviation usage, which the other dictionaries do not mention. This divergence is practical rather than doctrinal — Anderson was attentive to American reporting conventions and abbreviation practice in a way that the English-rooted Black's and Bouvier's were not.
The Burrill's entry, as noted, appears fragmentary and corrupted in the available text. Its reference to an unnamed case holding that a word had "not acquired any definite and fixed legal meaning" may be interesting in another context but cannot be reliably attributed to "sen" as a legal term.
No historical dictionary assigns this term any continuing doctrinal weight.