Prosequi

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The continuation of a legal action or prosecution initiated by the state seeks to pursue a case without a definitive conclusion or resolution
2. The act of carrying on with court proceedings on behalf of the government aims to resolve legal matters that have not yet been settled
3. To proceed with a lawsuit or prosecution already started by the authorities without closing the matter

Etymology: "Prosequi" is the Latin infinitive "prosequi," meaning "to pursue" or "to follow up," built from "pro-" ("forward") and "sequi" ("to follow"). The same "sequi" root gives English "sequel," "sequence," and "consequence," so the family is about things that follow on from one another. In English legal usage, the word appears in the phrase "nolle prosequi," which is Latin for "be unwilling to pursue." A prosecutor who enters a nolle prosequi formally declines to continue a case, and the phrase has been used in English and American courts for centuries. The Latin wording is literally a statement of unwillingness, so the phrase describes a decision to stop rather than to carry on. The word on its own, as your definition describes, refers to the act of continuing a case, which is the opposite of what the full phrase usually signals. Readers meeting it in legal texts should check whether "nolle" is present, since the two forms point in opposite directions.