Coarted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic term describing something that has been confined, restricted, or pressed into a narrower space or limit
2. Describing a thing or person that was hemmed in or limited to a smaller compass than before
3. Having been constrained or brought within tighter bounds, as an older legal or literary usage implies

Etymology: "Coarted" is the past participle of the verb "coart," which comes from Anglo-French "coarter" (also "coartier"), from Medieval Latin "coartare," meaning to press together or confine. The Latin verb was itself built from "co-" (together) and "artare" (to narrow or compress), the latter from "artus," meaning close-fitting or tight, which also gave English "artery" and "arctic" through other routes. English borrowed the verb in the fourteenth century, and its legal use gave it a specific sense: to restrict or limit a person's choice, most famously in the phrase "coarted" for an oath or a jury's verdict forced into a narrower outcome. Over time it faded from ordinary speech, and today it survives mainly in older legal and literary writing, where it still carries the sense of something pressed into a tighter boundary.