Definition
The past tense and past participle of "sell," used in legal contexts to indicate that a transfer of property, goods, or rights has been completed for valuable consideration. In law, "sold" does more than describe a completed transaction — it carries legal weight as a term of art implying (1) the existence of a valid contract, (2) exchange for valuable consideration, and (3) actual or constructive transfer of title or rights from seller to buyer. A thing is "sold" when the conditions of a valid sale are met, not merely when the parties have expressed intent to sell.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simple past and past participle of "sell."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Imp. & p.p. of Sell.
In ordinary language, "sold" simply means that a sell event happened. In law, the term carries additional implied conclusions: that valid consideration exchanged hands and that a legally enforceable contract existed. An informal or void transfer is not "sold" in the legal sense, even if the parties used that word to describe it.
Common Confusion
"Sold" should not be confused with "agreed to be sold" or "contracted to sell." A completed sale and an executory contract of sale occupy different legal positions. In a completed sale, title has passed and the buyer's remedy is typically possession or damages for interference with ownership. Under an executory contract, the buyer's remedy is specific performance or damages for breach. Older equity cases turn heavily on this distinction.
Why It Matters in Research
The significance of this term in historical legal sources lies in what it implies rather than what it states. Anderson's signals that "sold" carries embedded legal conclusions: valuable consideration and a valid contract. Researchers reading older deeds, conveyances, and pleadings should treat the word as a term of completion and validity, not merely description.
In deed language, phrases like "bargained, sold, and conveyed" or "granted and sold" are operative words of conveyance — their presence or absence in historical instruments can determine whether title passed. In those contexts, "sold" is not merely descriptive; it is a formal word doing legal work.
In equity and replevin contexts, courts historically distinguished between "sold" (title transferred) and "agreed to be sold" (executory contract only). That distinction affects remedies: a buyer in a completed sale stands differently from a buyer under an executory contract. Researchers tracing property disputes in equity courts should be alert to this line.
Modern UCC-era research has shifted the analysis. Under Article 2, a sale is defined as the passing of title from seller to buyer for a price, and the rules governing when that passage occurs are detailed and can differ from the common law understanding. Historical sources predating the UCC may use "sold" in ways that do not map cleanly onto modern commercial law doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's Dictionary of Law states that the term "imports a valuable consideration, and a valid contract to sell or convey." This is a compact but meaningful entry. It makes two points: first, that the word is not neutral — it implies consideration has passed; second, that it implies contractual validity, meaning a bare or void purported sale is not truly a "sale" in the legal sense and cannot honestly be described as a completed "sold."
Historical legal dictionaries generally agree on this implication. The word functions as a shorthand for a completed, enforceable transaction. What older sources do not address is the modern layering introduced by the UCC and consumer protection statutes, which in some contexts treat transactions as "sales" even before all traditional common law elements would have been satisfied — for instance, where risk of loss and title passage are disaggregated.