Definition
A Latin legal term from medieval English law meaning to pay interest, or to bear or be chargeable with interest on a debt. The term appears in early English legal documents to describe the running or accrual of interest on an obligation — particularly in contexts where interest-bearing debt was a subject of legal regulation or prohibition.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering USURARE in medieval English legal records should treat it as a technical term of art embedded in a regulatory framework, not merely a neutral description of financial mechanics. The term surfaces primarily in documents addressing usury — the taking of interest — at a time when ecclesiastical and royal law imposed significant restrictions on lending at interest, especially by Jews and by Christian merchants. Its appearance in a source signals engagement with that broader legal regime.
The two references cited by Burrill — Articuli Magna Cartae Johannis (the Articles of the Great Charter) and Fleta — place USURARE squarely within thirteenth-century English constitutional and legal literature. Chapter 34 of the Articles associated with Magna Carta addressed protections for heirs and widows from the accumulation of usurious debt during a ward's minority, a context in which the running of interest was itself a legal harm to be controlled. Fleta, the late-thirteenth-century legal treatise modeled on Bracton, addresses similar concerns about debt and interest in the context of feudal land tenure and guardianship.
Researchers using Law Mind's corpus of historical English legal materials should note that USURARE will not appear in modern sources. Its relevance is confined to Latin-language records, Year Books, and treatises predating the gradual shift to English in legal documentation. When tracing the history of usury law, USURARE is one of several Latin terms — alongside USURA (interest or usury itself) and FOENUS — that collectively describe the conceptual vocabulary of medieval debt regulation. Understanding which term a source uses can indicate whether the document is addressing the act of paying interest (USURARE as a verb), the interest amount as a thing (USURA as a noun), or the broader practice of usurious lending.
A practical trap: because USURARE looks like a conjugated Latin verb rather than a standalone noun, it may be overlooked in indexes and glossaries that organize entries by nominal form. Researchers searching for usury-related provisions in Latin texts should search both USURA and verbal forms derived from the same root.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the primary English-language legal dictionary source for this term, and his entry is brief but precise: he identifies USURARE as old English law Latin, gives both meanings (to pay interest; to carry or be chargeable with interest), and anchors the term to two identifiable thirteenth-century sources. This is exactly the kind of entry where Burrill's strength — his systematic attention to Latin terms of art from medieval English legal literature — shows clearly.
The entry does not attempt to trace the term into canon law or Roman law sources, where cognate vocabulary carried related but distinct meanings. USURA in Roman law had a more elaborate doctrinal history, including regulated rates and distinctions between different classes of lenders and borrowers, none of which Burrill addresses under this heading. Researchers who need that dimension of the term's history should look to civil law dictionaries and canon law sources rather than relying on Burrill's entry alone.
No other shelf dictionaries in the Law Mind collection carry an independent entry for USURARE, making Burrill the sole dictionary authority here.
Jurisdictional Note
USURARE is a term of medieval English law and has no direct modern jurisdictional application. Its legal context is the common law of England before and shortly after Magna Carta. Researchers working in Scottish, continental, or canon law sources will find parallel vocabulary but should not assume identical legal meaning.