SUP

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

SUPAuthored
The Law Mind • 636 words
Definition
In historical common law pleading and real property procedure, "sup" appears as a truncated form of "summons" or an abbreviated procedural marker in writ records and law dictionaries. As a standalone legal term, it carries no independent substantive meaning in modern law. Its appearance in historical sources is almost entirely notational — a contraction or scanning artifact in older printed legal dictionaries and writ registers, rather than a defined term of art. Where the abbreviation appears in original writs and early common law records, it typically signals a reference to the summons stage of real actions: the formal command directing the sheriff to cause the tenant to appear and answer the demandant's claim. This is the procedural step preceding the attachment and distress stages of the older real action sequence.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To take into the mouth with the lips, as a liquid; to take or drink by a little at a time; to sip. The ordinary English word "sup" has no connection to its appearance in legal sources. When researchers encounter "sup" in a legal dictionary or writ record, they should treat it as an abbreviation or truncation — not as a borrowing from common English. The culinary and legal appearances of the string of letters are entirely unrelated.
Common Confusion
SUP vs. SUMMONS: Researchers encountering "sup" in a real actions context should navigate directly to SUMMONS. The fragment, where it appears, is describing the summons stage of real property litigation — not a separately cognizable procedural device. SUP vs. SUPERSEDEAS / SUPPLEMENTAL / SUPPRESSION: In other contexts, "sup" as an abbreviation may prefix entirely different legal concepts. Corpus researchers should use surrounding text to determine which full term is intended before drawing interpretive conclusions.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers consulting digitized or OCR-processed versions of historical law dictionaries — including Burrill's — will occasionally encounter "sup" as a fragment generated by imperfect scanning or truncation of longer headwords such as SUMMONS, SUPERSEDEAS, SUPPLEMENTAL, or SUPPRESSION. The risk is treating the fragment as a complete, standalone entry when it is not. If you are working in the Law Mind corpus and encounter "sup" in a writ or pleading record, the most productive move is to expand the search to the full term it abbreviates. In the real actions context (where Burrill's usage appears), the operative concept is the summons in a real action — the initial process by which a tenant was brought before the court. That process is well documented under SUMMONS and within broader treatments of real property actions. Do not confuse abbreviated notations in digitized dictionary scans with genuine terms of art. Burrill's entry in which this fragment appears is clearly mid-sentence text from a longer discussion of the summons in real actions, not a defined headword.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary does not define "sup" as an independent term. The fragment appears mid-passage in a description of the summons procedure in real actions, explaining that the sheriff issued a warrant to two persons called summoners — typically the sheriff's bailiffs — directing them to command the tenant's appearance. The procedural sequence described belongs to the older forms of real actions largely obsolete by the nineteenth century, though Burrill preserves the detail for historical completeness. No other major historical legal dictionary (Black's, Bouvier's, Tomlin's, Jacob's) carries "sup" as a defined entry. Its appearance in Burrill's is an artifact of how the text was parsed, not evidence that the term had recognized legal meaning.
Related Terms
SUMMONS SUPERSEDEAS REAL ACTIONS ATTACHMENT (process) DISTRESS ORIGINAL WRIT SHERIFF (process duties) BAILIFF
SUPmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870
(497) summon the tenant to appear in court, according to the requisition of the writ. This command was contained in the original writ, and no separate writ of summons issued to the sheriff. Id. 146. The summons, when actually made, was made by the sheriff issuing his warrant to two persons, called summoners in the original writ, (and who usually were the sheriff's bailiffs,) directing them to command the tenant to render the land, as in the writ, and unless he should do so, to summon him to appear at the return of the writ. On receiving this warrant, the bailiffs prepared a summons, which pursued the form of the warrant, and served it on the tenant of the land. This was the correct practice, as stated by Mr. Roscoe, though according to Booth and Mr. Serjeant Williams, no actual summons was, in their time, ever made in any real action. Id. ibid. (498) Superficiariæ ædes were buildings erected on hired ground, (in conducto solo.) Dig. 43. 18. 2. (499) fendant may, in certain cases, procure his discharge from custody, under a capias, by obtaining a writ of supersedeas to be directed to the sheriff for that purpose. 1 Tidd's Pr. 279. 1 Burr. Pr. 399. The name of this writ is derived from its emphatic word in the Latin forms, a great variety of which are to be found in the Register. Tibi præcipimus quod captioni corporis prædicti Roberti, occasione præmissa, supersedeas usque ad, &c.; we command you that you supersede the taking of the body of the aforesaid Robert, on the occasion aforesaid, until, &c. Reg. Orig. 70 b, 71 a. Vobis præcipimus quod, si ita est, tunc executioni judicii per vos in curia prædicta redditi omnino supersedeatis; we command you that if it be so, then you wholly supersede the execution of the judgment rendered by you in the court aforesaid. Id. 145. And see Id. tabula.
SUPv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To take into the mouth with the lips, as a liquid; to take or drink by a little at a time; to sip. There I'll sup Balm and nectar in my cup. Crashaw.
SUPn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A small mouthful, as of liquor or broth; a little taken with the lips; a sip. Tom Thumb had got a little sup. Drayton.
SUPv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To eat the evening meal; to take supper. I do entreat that we may sup together.
supverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon.
supintj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
what's up (either as a greeting or actual question)
supadj
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
Being or relating to the squark that is the superpartner of an up quark.

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