Definition
An archaic Law French term meaning treasure. Used in medieval English legal sources to denote treasure concealed in the earth and subsequently discovered — the phenomenon now addressed under the doctrine of treasure trove. The phrase *tresor musce en terre trove* (treasure hidden in the earth and found) appears in Britton and similar early texts as a term of art for the specific legal event triggering crown prerogative claims over buried valuables.
The term carries no independent legal significance in modern law. Its value is purely historical: it marks the early vocabulary through which English courts and treatise writers articulated what would become the common law doctrine of treasure trove.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Treasure; a collection of precious things. (Archaic/obsolete in English; the word survives as the modern French *trésor*.)
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Treasure. Marked obsolete. Cited to Chaucer.
By the time Burrill compiled his dictionary, *tresor* had already dropped entirely from living English usage. Its appearance in legal sources is not an instance of law developing a technical meaning distinct from common usage — rather, the term is a relic of the Law French overlay on early English law, intelligible only by reference to its French cognate.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *tresor* will find it almost exclusively in early English legal texts drawing on Law French — Britton, Bracton-era materials, and the Year Books — and in the dictionaries and treatises (like Burrill's) that glossed those sources for later readers. The term does not appear in modern statutes or case law.
Two navigational points matter:
First, *tresor* and its cognate phrases (*tresor musce en terre trove*, *tresor musce en terre et trove*) are not interchangeable with the anglicized term *treasure trove* in research. The Law French phrases appear in manuscripts and early printed legal texts; treasure trove as a developed legal doctrine appears in later common law sources. Searching only anglicized terms will miss the earliest stratum of the doctrine.
Second, Britton — the primary source Burrill cites for *tresor* — is an early treatise written in Law French and attributed to Edward I's reign. Chapter 17, referenced in Burrill's entry, addresses crown prerogatives including rights over found treasure. Researchers using Britton in translation should be alert to the fact that translators render *tresor* simply as "treasure," losing the Law French signal that marks these as technical legal passages.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is brief and purely lexical: *tresor* equals treasure, with the two specific Law French phrases quoted from Britton. Burrill does not attempt to distinguish the term from treasure trove doctrine more broadly or to trace its evolution into English common law — his entry functions as a glossary note rather than a substantive analysis.
No other source dictionary was provided for this entry. The Webster's 1913 reference confirms that by the nineteenth century the word was considered obsolete even as a common English term, supporting the view that its appearance in legal sources is strictly archival.
What historical dictionaries collectively miss is the doctrinal context: the question of what happened when *tresor* was found — who held title, what obligations attached, what the crown's prerogative comprised — is not answered in the glossary entry and must be reconstructed from the primary texts and from treatises addressing treasure trove directly.
Jurisdictional Note
The term belongs to the English legal tradition. Civil law systems use their own vocabulary for analogous concepts (e.g., *thesaurus inventus* in Roman-derived law). American law largely abandoned the common law treasure trove doctrine in favor of statutory lost-property frameworks, making *tresor* a term of purely historical and comparative interest in U.S. research contexts.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Treasure Trove