Jurrour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a person sworn to serve on a jury and deliver a verdict in a legal case
2. A sworn member of a court panel who hears the evidence in a trial and judges the facts
3. Historically, one of the men empanelled to examine evidence and reach a decision at law

Etymology: "Jurour" is a medieval spelling of "juror," and the spelling was still in use when English was taking shape. The root is the verb "jurer," "to swear," which came into Anglo-Norman and Old French from Latin "iurare," "to swear an oath," itself built on "ius," "law" or "right." A juror, then, was originally someone bound by oath to speak the truth. The medieval jury was not the impartial panel we know. Its members were drawn from the local neighborhood and were expected to already know the facts of the case, or at least the reputation of the people involved. They functioned more like sworn witnesses than detached judges of evidence presented to them. Over the following centuries, the role shifted toward weighing testimony heard in court, and "juror" came to mean the detached listener we now picture. The older sense survives in the same root as "jury," which comes from the Old French "juree," meaning a sworn inquest.