Surrejoinder

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. In old common-law pleading, the plaintiff's answer to the defendant's rejoinder, continuing the exchange of written arguments
2. A formal pleading in early English litigation in which the plaintiff responded to the defendant's rejoinder in the series of replies
3. The plaintiff's written response to a defendant's rejoinder, one step in the traditional sequence of pleadings in a lawsuit

Etymology: "Surrejoinder" is a legal term built from two parts. The prefix "sur-" comes from Anglo-French, where it meant "over" or "upon," and it appears in English words such as "surcharge" and "surname." Attached to "rejoinder," it names the reply a plaintiff makes to a defendant's rejoinder, the second round of pleading in an old-style lawsuit. The base word "rejoinder" carries the core idea. It comes from the verb "rejoin," meaning to answer or respond, which entered English from Anglo-French and ultimately traces back to Latin roots meaning "to join again." So a surrejoinder is literally a reply added on top of an earlier reply, in a back-and-forth where each side answered the other in turn.

Synonyms: reply, response