英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

allocate (v.)[allocate 词源字典]: 1630s, from verbal used of adjective allocate (mid-15c. in legal use), from Medieval Latin allocate (the common first word of writs authorizing payment), imperative plural of allocare "allocate," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + locare "to place" (see locate). Related: Allocated; allocating.[allocate etymology, allocate origin, 英语词源]
bumbailiff (n.): server of writs, maker of arrests, etc., c. 1600, from bum "arse" (see bum (n.1)), because he was always felt to be close behind, + bailiff.
certiorari: legal Latin, "to be certified, to be informed or shown," from a word figuring in the opening phrase of such writs from superior to inferior courts seeking the records of a case. Passive present infinitive of certorare "to certify, inform," from certior, comp. of certus "sure" (see certain).
file (v.1): "place (papers) in consecutive order for future reference," mid-15c., from Old French filer "string documents on a thread or wire for preservation or reference" (15c.), earlier "to spin thread," from fil "thread, string" (12c.), from Latin filum "a thread, string; thread of fate; cord, filament," from PIE *gwhis-lom (cognates: Armenian jil "sinew, string, line," Lithuanian gysla "vein, sinew," Old Church Slavonic zila "vein"), from root *gwhi- "thread, tendon." The notion is of documents hung up on a line in consecutive order for ease of reference.
File (filacium) is a threed or wyer, whereon writs, or other exhibits in courts, are fastened for the better keeping of them. [Cowel, "The Interpreter," 1607]
Methods have become more sophisticated, but the word has stuck. Meaning "place among the records of a court or office" is from 1510s; of newspaper reporters sending in stories, 1954. Intransitive sense "march in a line (as soldiers do) one after another" is from 1610s. Related: Filed; filing.
formulary (n.): 1540s, "collection of set forms," from French formulaire "collection of formulae," from noun use of Latin adjective formularius, from formula "a form" (see formula). As an adjective in English, "of the nature of a formula," 1728. The Latin adjective also was used as a noun meaning "a lawyer skilled in composing writs."
habeas corpus (n.): writ requiring a person to be brought before a court, mid-15c., Latin, literally "(you should) have the person," in phrase habeas corpus ad subjiciendum "produce or have the person to be subjected to (examination)," opening words of writs in 14c. Anglo-French documents to require a person to be brought before a court or judge, especially to determine if that person is being legally detained. From habeas, second person singular present subjunctive of habere "to have, to hold" (see habit (n.)) + corpus "person," literally "body" (see corporeal). In reference to more than one person, habeas corpora.