Definition
A Latin adverb meaning "as" or "just as." In legal usage, *sicut* appears almost exclusively as a prefix in two writ formulas rather than as a standalone term:
1. *Sicut alias* — "as before" or "as on another occasion." A second writ issued after a first writ of the same type has gone unexecuted, directing the officer to carry out the command as previously directed.
2. *Sicut pluries* — "as oftentimes" or "as many times before." A third or subsequent writ of the same type, issued after both an original writ and a *sicut alias* have failed of execution.
The term also appears in the maxim *sicut natura non facit saltum, ita nec lex* — "as nature does nothing by a leap, so neither does law" — a principle of gradual, orderly legal development invoked in common law reasoning.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): *Sicut* is a Latin conjunction and adverb meaning "as," "just as," or "in the same way that." It is a common connective word in classical Latin prose.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately entered; the word would be understood by any educated reader as standard Latin for "as" or "just as."
The gap is narrow but real. In ordinary Latin, *sicut* is a general comparative connective. In legal practice, it operated as a technical procedural signal embedded in writ language — its appearance in a writ formula told a sheriff or court officer precisely where in a sequence of commands a particular writ stood, which had procedural consequences that the plain Latin meaning alone would not convey.
Common Confusion
*Sicut alias* and *alias* writs are easily conflated. An *alias* writ is simply a second writ; *sicut alias* is the formulaic language within that writ acknowledging the first attempt. Researchers who encounter *alias* in a writ index and *sicut alias* in the writ's body are looking at two descriptions of the same document from different angles. Similarly, *pluries* as a standalone term and *sicut pluries* as writ language both describe the third-or-later writ, but the Latin formula is the operative text while *pluries* is the common shorthand. See ALIAS; PLURIES.
Why It Matters in Research
*Sicut* on its own will rarely appear as a headword or index entry in historical legal sources. Researchers encountering the term in primary sources — writs, Year Book entries, pleading records — need to know immediately that it signals a position in a writ sequence, not an independent legal concept. Missing this can cause confusion about whether a court action was at the original stage or at a stage of repeated non-execution.
In the Law Mind corpus, entries under ALIAS and PLURIES carry the substantive doctrinal content. *Sicut* functions as a navigational pointer: its presence tells you to pull those entries. The maxim *sicut natura non facit saltum, ita nec lex* is a different use case entirely — it appears in jurisprudential and common law treatise contexts as an argument for incremental reasoning, and a researcher encountering it in that register should treat it as a principle citation rather than writ terminology.
Historical writ records using Year Book conventions (as Burrill cites, *Yearb. M. 8 Edw. III. 45*) employ *sicut alias* in formal Latin pleading records. Researchers working in medieval and early modern English legal records should be alert to the possibility that writ databases and calendars may index these documents under *alias* or *pluries* without reproducing the *sicut* prefix at all, potentially making the writ invisible to a Latin-text search.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's entry is minimal — a pure cross-reference to ALIAS and PLURIES with no independent definition. Burrill is more useful, providing the Latin gloss, the Year Book citation, and the maxim. Neither source treats *sicut* as a term requiring substantive definition in its own right, which accurately reflects its status: it is grammatical scaffolding for writ formulas rather than a legal concept. Both dictionaries agree that the researcher's attention belongs at ALIAS and PLURIES.
Burrill's inclusion of the *sicut natura* maxim is a useful reminder that *sicut* appears in a second, non-procedural register in legal writing. This usage is absent from Anderson entirely. Neither source discusses how the term functions in writ indexing or the risk of it being stripped from document titles in later calendaring — a practical gap that modern corpus researchers should note.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: ALIAS WRIT; PLURIES WRIT.