TESTIS

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

TESTISAuthored
The Law Mind • 832 words
Definition
Latin. In law, a witness — a person who gives testimony in court or who witnesses the execution of a legal document such as a deed, will, or instrument. The term appears primarily in Latin maxims and in older common law and civil law authorities. As a legal term, testis functions both as a standalone designation for a witness and as the root embedded in derivative terms central to Anglo-American evidentiary doctrine.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A testicle of a vertebrate; an analogous gland in invertebrates. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A testicle. The anatomical meaning of testis is the ordinary English (and modern medical) meaning of the word and has no overlap with the legal meaning. The two senses share a Latin root but diverged completely in usage. Researchers encountering testis in any legal text — historical or modern — should read it as witness without hesitation. The anatomical sense will not appear in legal instruments or evidentiary doctrine.
Why It Matters in Research
Testis appears in Law Mind sources almost exclusively in two contexts: as a component of Latin maxims on witness credibility, and as a term of art in civil law treatises translating Roman evidentiary rules into common law commentary. Researchers working in older primary sources — particularly pre-19th-century equity pleadings, ecclesiastical records, or translations of Justinian's Digest — will encounter testis frequently. The critical navigational point is that the maxims carrying testis often have specific common law reception histories: a maxim quoted in Coke's Institutes may have been applied, modified, or rejected differently in English equity courts and in American jurisdictions. Do not assume uniform adoption. Several maxims embedded in the source dictionaries deserve particular attention: — Testis de visu preponderat aliis ("An eyewitness is preferred to others") shaped common law preference for direct over hearsay evidence and appears in commentary leading toward modern best evidence analysis. — Nemo testis esse debet in propria sua causa ("No one ought to be a witness in his own cause") is the ancestor of witness competency rules and, more broadly, of the rule against self-interested testimony. Its reception into American evidence law was uneven; the rule's scope and its relationship to party competency statutes passed in the 19th century is a productive research thread. — Testis lupanaris sufficit ad factum in lupanari ("A lewd person is a sufficient witness to an act committed in a brothel") reflects older common law rules on witness competency based on character. These rules were substantially abolished by competency reforms in the 19th century, but researchers tracing impeachment doctrine or the history of infamy-based disqualification will find the maxim a useful anchor point. The Latin dictionary confirms that testis in classical Latin carried the primary meaning of one who attests orally or in writing, and that superstes and antistes were older Roman law synonyms — a distinction Burrill flags and that matters when reading civil law sources translated from Roman originals.
Historical Dictionary Support
The five source dictionaries are consistent in their core definition: testis means witness. Bouvier and Anderson are the most economical, offering brief entries that function primarily as cross-references to derivative terms. Burrill is the most historically grounded, tracing testis through the Digest, the Code, and the Novels of Justinian, and noting the archaic Roman synonyms superstes and antistes — information absent from both Black's editions. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) are functionally identical in their testis entries, with both editions leading with the Latin maxims. The 2nd edition reproduces the core maxims but adds Testis nemo in sua causa esse potest in its string of authorities, slightly expanding the witness-competency thread. Anderson adds genuine value by surfacing the verb testari and the full family of English derivatives — attest, contest, protest, testify, testimony, testacy, testator, testament, intestate — which is useful for researchers reconstructing the semantic field of witnessing and attestation in historical legal instruments. What none of the historical dictionaries address systematically is the procedural context in which testis operated differently across civilian and common law traditions. Roman law under the Digest imposed minimum witness-number requirements in certain transactions; common law developed its own witness-requirement rules independently. Researchers bridging civilian and common law sources on evidentiary requirements should not assume the maxims traveled intact.
Related Terms
Witness — the direct English equivalent of testis in evidentiary contexts Attestation — the act of witnessing a document; shares root with testis Testimony — derivative term; the evidence a testis gives Competency of witnesses — the doctrine developed in part from maxims grounded in testis Nemo judex in sua causa — parallel maxim governing judicial disqualification; often cited alongside nemo testis in sua causa Superstes — archaic Roman synonym for testis; appears in Burrill and civil law sources Testament — document named for the witnesses (testes) present at its execution Intestate — dying without a valid witnessed will; shares etymological root
TESTISmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
Lat. A witness; one who Testibus deponentibus in pari numero, gives evidence in court, or who witnesses a dignioribus est credendum. Where the witnesses who testify are in equal number, [on both sides,] the more worthy are to be believed. 4 Inst. 279. document. Testis de visu præponderat aliis. 4 Inst. 279. An eye-witness is preferred to others. TESTIS LUPANARIS, ETC. N Testis lupanaris sufficit ad factum in P lupanari. Moore, 817. A lewd person is a sufficient witness to an act committed in a brothel. Testis nemo in sua causa esse potest. No one can be a witness in his own cause. Testis oculatus unus plus valet quam auriti decem. 4 Inst. 279. One eye-wit- ness is worth more than ten ear-witnesses.
TESTISmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
Lat. A witness; one who gives evidence in court, or who witnesses a document. Testis de visu preponderat aliis. 4 Inst. 279. An eye-witness is preferred to others. Testis lupanaris sufficit ad factum in lupanari. Moore, 817. A lewd person is a sufficient witness to an act committed in a brothel. Testis memo in sua causa esse potest. No one can be a witness in his own cause. Testis oculatus unus plus valet quam auriti decem. 4 Inst. 279. One eye-witness is worth more than ten ear-witnesses.
TESTISmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
One may die testate as to a part, and intestate as to the rest, of his property. See generally INFLUENCE; INSANITY, 2 (5); LETTER, 4; REPRESENTATIVE (1); WILL, 2. L. A witness. Testari: to be a witness, bear witness to; to be witnessed, shown, certified. Derivatives: attest, contest, protest, testify, testimony, testacy, testator, testament, intestate. Nemo testis esse debet in propria sua causa. No one should be a witness in his own cause. One cannot testify in his own behalf. This common-law rule has been very generally abrogated. See further WITNESS. 1 See McDonald v. Elfes, 61 Ind. 234 (1878); 13 id. 389; 17 id. 272, 95; 18 id. 443; 63 Iowa, 235. 2 Frick v. Barbour, 64 Pa. 121 (1870). 2 Story, Eq. §§ 1505, 1513; 3 Bl. Com. 450. As to contracts for the production of testimony, see Cobb v. Cowdery, 40 Vt. 25 (1867), cases: 94 Am. Dec. 375-78, cases. 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 128, 311, 331, 333, 339, 340, 343, 349, 862, 379, 386, 390, 411, 537. Test'. An abbreviation of testis, a witness, or of teste, being a witness. The attestation of the foreman of a grand jury that a bill has been found or ignored may be certified in Pennsylvania in the words "test. pro reipublicæ, AB-." Testamentum. A will of personalty; a will of any species of property. Cum testamento anпехо. With the will annexed - to letters of administration, q. v. Ex testamento. From a will; under a will; by force or virtue of a will. Opposed, ab intestato: from an intestate. Expressions used to indicate the origin of property. Omne testamentum consummatum morte est. Every will is perfected by the death: a will is of no effect till after the death of the maker-up to the last moment of life is ambulatory, q. v. Testamentum inofficiosum. An undutiful will; a will made in disregard of the obligations of nature or parentage. The Romans set aside testaments as inofficiosa, that is, deficient in natural duty, if they disinherited "children" without assigning sufficient reason. But if a child received any legacy, though ever so small, it was proof that the testator had not lost his memory or reason, which, otherwise, the law presumed, and no contest of the will was allowed. From this has arisen the groundless notion that to disinherit an heir he must be left a shilling or some other express legacy.1 "Children" " meant natural and domestic heirs. They were non-disinheritable because considered as having a property in the father's effects, and as entitled to the management of his estate. An action, called querela inofficiosi testamenti, was introduced to rescind any such will, made without just cause. But the parent, by charging his estate with debts, could render succession unprofitable.2 Testandi. See ANIMUS. Testatum. It is witnessed, or testified. At common law, when a defendant who was to be arrested on a capias could not be found within the sheriff's bailiwick the writ was returned, and another writ, called the testatum capias, was directed to the sheriff of the county where the defendant was supposed to be, reciting the former writ, and that "it is testified' that the defendant lurks in your bailiwick," and then commanded that he be taken, as in the case of the former capias. At present, when the action is brought in one county and the defendant lives iu another, to save trouble, time, and expense it is usual to make out a testatum at first, supposing a former writ to have been granted.3 A testatum execution is a writ of execution (either a fieri facias or a capias ad respondendum) issued 12 Bl. Com. 502; Hadley, Rom. Law, 317. 22 Kent, 327; 2 Addams, 449; 3 id. 207. $3 Bl. Com. 282-83.
TESTISn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A testicle.
testisnoun
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.
A testicle of a vertebrate. | An analogous gland in invertebrates such as the hydra.

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