VIGOR - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

VIGORAuthored

The Law Mind • 918 words

Definition

In legal Latin usage, vigor means strength, force, efficacy, or operative power — particularly the inherent force by which a legal instrument, rule, or term produces its legal effect without external aid. The word appears almost exclusively in Latin maxims and phrases rather than as a standalone legal term.

The three principal phrases in which vigor appears as a functional legal term are:

1. Proprio vigore — "by its own force." Used to describe a legal instrument, statute, or rule that operates independently, without requiring additional authority, ratification, or construction to give it effect.

2. Ex proprio vigore — "by its own inherent force." Functionally equivalent to proprio vigore; emphasizes that the operative power is internal to the instrument or rule itself.

3. Ex vigore termini / Ex vigore terminorum — "by the strength of the term" or "from the very meaning of the language." Used in interpretive contexts to indicate that a legal consequence follows from the plain force of the words themselves, not from implication, analogy, or extrinsic reasoning.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An alternative form of vigour; the word itself signals physical or mental energy, force, or vitality.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; force; energy." Also: "Strength or force in animal or vegetable nature or action." Also: "Strength; efficacy; potency."

The common meaning is not wrong, but it is insufficient. In legal Latin, vigor sheds its association with living energy and becomes a term of legal logic: it describes the self-executing force of a text or rule. A statute operates proprio vigore not because it is energetic in any physical sense, but because it requires no extrinsic prop to produce its legal consequences. The gap is between biological vitality and doctrinal self-sufficiency.

Common Confusion

The second-edition Black's entry included under this headword is plainly a misfiled definition — the text describes vue, the civil law and common law concept of an opening admitted for light rather than outlook, and jury view of property or a crime scene. This is an editorial error in the historical source, not a secondary meaning of vigor. Researchers consulting the second-edition Black's should not read the vue material as any part of the legal definition of vigor.

Why It Matters in Research

Vigor as a standalone search term will produce noise. The word is legally meaningful only inside its Latin phrases, so corpus searches should target proprio vigore, ex proprio vigore, ex vigore termini, and ex vigore terminorum rather than vigor alone.

Proprio vigore is the phrase most likely to appear in primary sources — particularly in early English and American case law and treatises dealing with statutory construction, contract interpretation, and the operative effect of deeds or royal grants. When a court says an act operates proprio vigore, it is resolving a question about whether the instrument is self-executing or requires implementing authority. That distinction carries real doctrinal weight and is worth tracing carefully in the historical record.

Ex vigore termini and ex vigore terminorum appear more often in treatise literature than in judicial opinions, and they function as interpretive signals: the writer is asserting that a result follows from the plain meaning of language, closing off arguments from context or equity. Researchers working on the history of textualism or plain-meaning canons of construction will find these phrases useful markers.

The misfiled second-edition entry is a concrete reminder that headword-based navigation in historical dictionaries is unreliable. Cross-check any Black's (2nd Ed.) entry against surrounding context before relying on it.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three historical sources agree on the core meaning: strength, force, efficacy, operative power. Black's (1st Ed.) is the most concise, offering only the Latin gloss and the proprio vigore phrase. Anderson's is the most useful, providing three phrases with distinct translations and making clear that ex vigore termini and ex vigore terminorum carry interpretive rather than merely operative force. The two sources complement rather than contradict each other.

Black's (2nd Ed.) must be set aside entirely for this entry. The definition block filed under vigor in that edition describes an unrelated concept (vue), and no substantive content about vigor survives the apparent editorial error. Researchers should weight the 1st edition Black's and Anderson's heavily and treat the 2nd edition entry as corrupted.

None of the historical sources discusses proprio vigore in the context of constitutional self-execution, which became a significant American doctrinal category in the nineteenth century. Researchers tracing that development will need to move beyond the dictionary shelf to treatise and case law sources.

Jurisdictional Note

The Latin phrases are not jurisdiction-specific but appear with greater frequency in common law jurisdictions with strong early English influence — particularly in English chancery and common law reports and in early American federal and state case law. Civil law jurisdictions (including Louisiana) used similar Latin formulations but through a distinct doctrinal tradition; Louisiana materials may require independent attention.

VIGORmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Lat. Strength; virtue; force; efficiency. Proprio vigore, by its own force.

VIGORmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

those openings which are made rather for the admission of light than to look out of. Civ. Code La. art. 715. Also an inspection of property in controversy, or of a place where a crime has been committed, by the jury previously to the trial. See Garbarsky v. Simkin, 36 Misc. Rep., 195, 73 N. Y. Supp. 199; Wakefield v. Railroad Co., 63 Me. 385; Lancaster County v. Holyoke, 37 Neb. 328, 55 N. W. 960, 21 L. BR. A. 894. —View and delivery. When a right of common is exercisable not over the whole waste, but only in convenient places indicated from time to time by the lord of the manor or his bailiff, it is said to be exercisable after “view and delivery.” Elton, Commons, 233.—View, deof, In real actions, the defendant was entitled to demand a view, that is, a sight of the thing, in order to ascertain its identity and other circumstances. As, if a real action were brought against a tenant, and such tenant did not exactly know what land it was that the demandant asked, then he might pray the view. which was that he might see the land which the demandant claimed. rown.—View of an inquest. A view or inspection taken by a jury summoned upon an inquisition or inquest. of the place or Property to which the inquisition or inquiry refers. Brown—View of frankpledge. In English law. An examination to see if every freeman above twelve years of age within the district had taken the oath of allegiance. and found nine freeman pled es for his peaceable demeanor. 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 7. Lat. Strength; virtue; force; efficiency. Proprio vigore, by its own force. VIIS ET MODIS 1208 . WIS ET MODIS. Lat. In the ecclesiastical courts, service of a decree or citation etis et modis, i. e., by all “ways and means” likely to affect the party with knowledge of its contents, is equivalent to substituted service in the temporal courts, and is opposed to personal service. Phillim. Ecce. Law, 1258, 1283.

VIGORmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

L. Strength, efficacy, force. Ex proprio vigore. By its own inherent force. Ex vigore termini. By the strength of the word. Ex vigore terminorum. From the very meaning of the language.

VIGORn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; force; energy. The vigor of this arm was never vain. Dryden. Strength or force in animal or force in animal or vegetable nature or action; as, a plant grows with vigor. Strength; efficacy; potency. But in the fruithful earth . . . His beams, unactive else, their vigor find. Milton.

VIGORv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To invigorate. [Obs.] Feltham.

vigornoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC 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.

Alternative form of vigour.

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