Assize

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈsaɪz/

Definitions

1. A formal court proceeding historically conducted to evaluate legal disputes and criminal offenses
2. A session of a court, often involving a jury, tasked with resolving civil cases and assessing punishable acts
3. A formal judicial hearing held periodically to address legal matters ; a medieval law or ordinance that regulated various aspects of society

Etymology: The most surprising thing about this word is that a court session once meant a sitting of the court itself, and its name comes from the simple act of sitting down. Old French "assises" was the feminine plural of a past participle of "asseoir", meaning "to sit", and that verb descends from Latin "assidere", "to sit beside" or "to sit near". The judges were the ones who sat, so a session of justice was literally a gathering of those seated. The word arrived in Middle English as "assise", and its earliest senses in English were tied to the sittings themselves, when judges travelled on set circuits to hear cases. The sense of a rule or decree handed down at such a sitting came along with it, which is why the word also carried the meaning of a formal ordinance. Over time the legal meaning narrowed to the court session, and the older legislative sense faded.