Supersedeas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A court order that temporarily halts the enforcement of a judgment while an appeal or further review is pending
2. A legal writ that suspends the carrying out of a lower court's ruling until the matter is reconsidered
3. An official directive from a higher court that puts a previous judgment on hold pending appellate action

Etymology: Supersedeas is a legal term for a writ ordering a court to halt the enforcement of a judgment while it is under appeal, and its name is a Latin verb in disguise. The Latin "supersedeās" is the second-person singular of "supersedere," meaning "to refrain from" or "to desist from," built from "super" ("above, over") and "sedere" ("to sit"). Literally, the verb means "to sit above," and the sense of refraining comes from sitting on something to stop it, or from holding back from an action. The word's first and central role is in English and American court practice, where the writ takes its name from its opening words. Medieval Latin writs were often named after the first word of their text, and this one begins with a command in that form, "supersedeas," addressed to the official who would otherwise carry out the judgment. The command tells that official to stand down, so the name ended up describing the order itself rather than the verb it came from.

Synonyms: stay of execution