Definition
A Latin adverb used in legal texts and judicial opinions to mean "notwithstanding," "nevertheless," or "yet." TAMEN signals a qualification, concession, or contrary conclusion following a prior statement — typically indicating that a result holds despite an apparent obstacle or competing consideration. It functions as a pivot word in Latin legal reasoning, introduced where the writer acknowledges one principle but proceeds to affirm a different or narrowing conclusion.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Latin for "however," "yet," "nevertheless," or "notwithstanding." Used in classical Latin prose to mark contrast or concession.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered separately; recognized as a Latin particle of concession and contrast in standard classical usage.
The gap here is minimal in meaning but significant in context. In ordinary Latin prose, TAMEN is routine transitional vocabulary. In legal materials, it appears almost exclusively as a technical marker in Latin maxims, judicial opinions written in Law Latin, and older English and American court records. Encountering TAMEN in a legal source is a reliable signal that the surrounding text is either quoting or paraphrasing a Latin maxim, a civil law authority, or a pre-nineteenth-century common law ruling — not that TAMEN itself carries specialized legal freight beyond its classical sense.
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Why It Matters in Research
TAMEN is not a term of art — it carries no independent legal doctrine. Its significance in the Law Mind corpus is diagnostic rather than substantive. When a researcher encounters TAMEN in primary sources, it marks a methodological shift in the document:
First, it signals vintage. Routine use of TAMEN in judicial opinions is characteristic of early English common law materials, Roman and civil law sources, and American cases through the mid-nineteenth century. Its frequency drops sharply as courts moved away from Latin in written opinions. A dense cluster of Latin particles including TAMEN in a document is a useful dating heuristic.
Second, it signals the structure of the underlying argument. TAMEN introduces the operative conclusion after a concession. In reading Latin legal maxims or older treatise passages, correctly identifying TAMEN's pivot function is essential to understanding which clause is the holding and which is the acknowledged exception or difficulty. Misreading the logical relationship — treating both sides of TAMEN as equivalent assertions rather than concession-plus-conclusion — produces error in understanding the principle stated.
Third, it appears in the abbreviation TAMEN PER CUR. (tamen per curiam), meaning "yet by the court" or "nevertheless the court held." This shorthand appears in older case reporters to flag the court's conclusion where it departs from or qualifies a prior rule. Burrill records this usage with a citation to 1 P. Wms. 530, referring to Peere Williams's Chancery reports, a standard early eighteenth-century English equity reporter. Researchers encountering this abbreviation in headnotes or digests should understand it as a reporter's signal that the court's decision departs from what the prior discussion might have predicted.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical dictionary sources are in complete agreement. Black's (both editions) and Burrill each define TAMEN identically as "notwithstanding; nevertheless; yet." The only substantive addition across sources is Burrill's notation of the abbreviation TAMEN PER CUR. with its citation, which neither edition of Black's includes. This abbreviation is the most practically useful piece of information in the historical record for corpus researchers and is easily overlooked given how briefly Burrill treats it.
None of the historical sources discuss TAMEN as part of any specific doctrine, rule, or canonical maxim — consistent with its role as a function word rather than a term of art. Historical dictionaries are adequate here; the entry is not an area where the sources are misleading or incomplete in any way likely to affect research outcomes.
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