Middle English Dictionary Entry
lēgāl adj.
Entry Info
| Forms | lēgāl adj. |
| Etymology | L lēgālis & OF legal. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) Such according to law; (b) legally sanctioned; of a child, etc.: legitimate; -- also in fig. context; (c) having to do with the law; (d) based on the Mosaic Law.
Associated quotations
a
- a1425 Dial.Reason & A.(Cmb Ii.6.39)21/8 : A naturel seruaund is he wos souȝle is vnable to haue þe ȝifte of discrecioun..A legale seruaunt is he whom fortune or self wille haþ feterid with þe bond of bondage.
b
- (c1443) Pecock Rule (Mrg M 519)35 : What children of good werkis þou schalt brynge forþ..þei schulen be to vs children of purchace legal and leful and no bastard braunchis.
- (a1460) Bokenham Sts. (Adv Abbotsford B3)64.321 (v.1:p.406) : The kyngis legal sone was more noble of blode and byrthe than Pilate.
c
- c1484(a1475) Caritate SSecr.(Tak 38)183/2 : ÞAN komyth þe strenht clepyd legal, þe qwyche is plantatyf of orygynalis [Lambeth 96/29: a lele sett vertu of originals; L (Steele, pars 3, chap. 7, p. 131): virtus legalis plantativa originalium], and þan it getith anodyr gouernauns to þe complement of þe lyfe.
- a1500(a1450) Ashmole SSecr.(Ashm 396)72/27 : Þan þe vertue legal, planted of and on his originall, gouerneth hym for terme of his lyf.
d
- 1447 Bokenham Sts.(Arun 327)1696 : Neuere aftyr vse þis presumpcyon..tyl assoylled þu be Of þis legal malediccyoun.
Supplemental Materials (draft)
Note: The rather cryptic Latin of the Secretum Secretorum (sense (c)), last in a list of powers of the soul which accrue during the course of life, appears to designate the 'law-making power' attendant on the judiciousness of old age, literally 'legal constitutive power of originals.' Steele's paraphrase is 'the power of law-making'; Bacon's gloss: 'id est constitutiva legum'; adding, in explanation of 'originalium,' 'id est, legum a quibus successores sumunt originem suarum legum quas ipsi addunt.'