de lunatico inquirendo

English edit

Etymology edit

From Latin lūnāticō inquīrendō.

Noun edit

de lunatico inquirendo

  1. (law) A legal document inquiring about the sanity of an individual.
    • 1851, Blackwood's Lady's Magazine and Gazette of the Fashionable World, or St. James's Court Register and Advertiser, for Town and Country. Of the Belles Lettres, Music, Fine Arts, Drama, Fashions, &c., volume 31, page 185:
      But, unless the fact is withheld by the reporters out of delicacy, the ladies who have lectured on Bloomerism are not mad—not, at least, in the de lunatico inquirendo sense of the term.

Usage notes edit

  • Often placed in italics, even in English expressions like "writ de lunatico inquirendo" or "the de lunatico inquirendo order".

Related terms edit

Further reading edit