Acceptilatio

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legal term referring to the cancellation of a debt or obligation through acceptance
2. it signifies the formal acknowledgment of a release from a contract or bond
3. it denotes the act of accepting the nullification of an agreement between parties

Etymology: Acceptilatio is a Latin legal term from Roman law, formed from "accipere" ("to accept, receive") and "latio," a noun from "ferre" ("to carry, bring"). Its literal sense is closer to "a receiving" or "acceptance," and it was used for a formal procedure in which a creditor declared a debt paid even when no money had changed hands. The procedure relied on a ritual question and answer. The debtor asked whether the creditor had received what was owed, and the creditor replied that he had. Because the spoken exchange itself discharged the obligation, the device let parties end a debt in writing or words alone, a practical convenience in a system where formal words carried legal force. English took the term as a technical borrowing from Roman law, used mainly by lawyers and in discussions of civil law history, so it has stayed a specialist word rather than entering everyday speech.