obiter
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin obiter.
Adverb
obiter (not comparable)
- Incidentally; in passing.
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):, New York, 2001, p.206:
- I will not here stand to discuss obiter, whether stars be causes, or signs; or to apologize for judicial astrology.
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Noun
obiter (plural obiters)
- (law) An obiter dictum; a statement from the bench commenting on a point of law which is not necessary for the judgment at hand and therefore has no judicial weight, as opposed to ratio decidendi.
Coordinate terms
- ratio decidendi, ratio
Anagrams
- brotie, torbie
Latin
Adverb
obiter
- on the way
- incidentally
References
- obiter in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- obiter in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- obiter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette