1924: oyer and terminer Mar 22, 2020

Many legal terms come from French or Latin, and may cause somewhat of a diglossic barrier even for English speakers. However, there are some terms which come from English, and would still fit into that category. The Anglo-French derived "oyer and terminer" or the Old English-based 'sac and soc' both refer to courts set up to hear and determine, as it would translate, in temporary courts of assizes. In the former case, while neither 'oyer' nor 'terminer' can exist in their own rights, the phrase was partially translated from "oyer et terminer", and neither is likely to change since these are both obsolete.

Support Word Facts at patreon.com/wordfacts