Supercedeas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legal writ or bond that halts the enforcement of a court judgment while it is under appeal
2. A court order or surety posted to temporarily stay the carrying out of a judgment until an appeal is decided
3. In law, a document or security that suspends the execution of a ruling during the period of an appeal

Etymology: Supersedeas is a legal writ, and its name is a Latin verb in its opening words. In medieval English courts, a "supersedeas" was an order directing a sheriff or court to stop an action already underway, most often the enforcement of a judgment while an appeal was pending. The word is the second person singular present subjunctive of the Latin "supersedere," meaning "to refrain from" or "to desist from" (literally "sit above" or "be superior to," then "to hold off"). Writs of this kind were written in Latin for centuries, and the Latin wording of the writ was used as its name, a common practice for early legal documents. The Latin verb was itself a formation from "super," "above," and "sedere," "to sit." The sense of "refraining" developed from the idea of sitting over a matter and leaving it alone. English adopted the legal term in the late Middle Ages, and it remains in use in modern American and British law, where it still refers to a court order suspending a judgment, often by posting a bond.

Synonyms: supersedeas