Definition
In historical English and Scots law, *vag* is an archaic verb meaning to wage or gage — that is, to formally pledge or offer surety. It appears almost exclusively in the specific procedural context of waging battle (*vadietur duellum*), where a party in a legal dispute would formally pledge to prove or defend a claim by trial of combat. The term is drawn from Latin *vadiare* (to pledge or give a gage) and operates as a compressed verb form in medieval legal Latin and early Scots law.
The phrase *vadietur inter eos duellum* — "battle shall be waged between them" — captures the term's primary legal function: the moment at which judicial combat is formally tendered and accepted as the mode of proof in a proceeding.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To drag or trail on the ground; to bend or yield; to flap in the wind.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently listed; the root *vag-* appears in related terms conveying motion, wandering, or looseness.
The common meanings have no connection to the legal meaning. In law, *vag* is a term of formal obligation and pledge — the opposite of looseness or yielding. A researcher encountering this word in a legal source should set aside any ordinary English association entirely.
Common Confusion
*Vag* is easily confused with *vadium*, the noun form denoting a pledge or gage itself. The distinction matters in reading medieval sources: *vag* (or *vadietur*) describes the act of pledging; *vadium* names the thing pledged or the legal institution of pledge. Researchers may also conflate this term with the broader concept of *vadiatio* (the formal act of offering surety in debt proceedings), which shares the same Latin root but operates in a different procedural context.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a marker term — its presence in a historical source almost always signals a wager of battle passage or a procedural description of trial by combat. Researchers working in Bracton, Regiam Majestatem, or Skene's *De Verbis Significationis* (the three sources Burrill's entry cites directly) will encounter *vadietur* in formulaic procedural Latin. Recognizing it as the operative verb for "to wage" or "to gage" battle unlocks the surrounding passage.
The term is functionally extinct in modern legal sources. It does not appear in any active procedural code and will not be found outside historical materials predating the abolition of trial by combat in England (1819, by statute). Any appearance in sources after the early modern period is antiquarian or scholarly.
In Scots law sources, Skene's *De Verbis Significationis* is the key glossary reference for this and related terms. Researchers consulting Scottish legal history should treat Skene as the primary interpretive source for this vocabulary layer.
Burrill's cross-references to *vadium* and *wager of battle* are the correct follow-on entries for anyone tracing this term in depth.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the only source in the Law Mind corpus to treat *vag* as a discrete entry, and it does so briefly — essentially as a pointer term, directing the reader to *vadium* and to the wager of battle procedure. The entry quotes Bracton (*fol. 157*) and *Regiam Majestatem* (*lib. 4, c. 2*) as primary authorities, with Skene as the Scots law gloss.
No other major historical legal dictionary (Black's, Bouvier's, Tomlin's) appears to treat *vag* as a headword, reflecting its extreme narrowness of use. It is not a term of general legal currency even in historical sources — it is a technical procedural verb embedded in a single, obsolete mode of proof. Burrill's decision to include it reflects his unusually broad coverage of medieval and Scots law vocabulary.
The absence of this term from other dictionaries is itself informative: researchers should not expect parallel entries in Black's or Bouvier's and should treat Burrill as the authoritative source within the historical dictionary shelf for this specific term.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is relevant primarily to English and Scots law sources from the medieval and early modern periods. It has no current operative meaning in any common law jurisdiction. Scots law sources, particularly Skene, give it the most developed treatment.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Wager of Battle (primary); Vadium (for the pledge concept underlying the term).