muniment

English

Alternative forms

• miniment [15th–17th c.]

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman muniment, Middle French muniment, and their source, Latin mūnīmentum (“fortification, defence”), from mūnīre (“to fortify”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmjuːnɪmənt/

Noun

muniment (plural muniments)

1. (chiefly law) A deed, or other official document kept as proof of ownership or rights or privileges; an archived document. [from 15th c.]
   • 1594, William West, Symboleography […] :

     hauing the said deedes, euidences, muniments, terriers, and writinges in their hands […]

   • 1966, Jerusalem Bible, Ezra 6:1, London: Darton, Longman & Todd:

     Then, on the order of King Darius, a search was made in Babylonia in the muniment rooms where the archives were kept […]

2. (obsolete, in the plural) Things which a person or place is equipped with; effects, furnishings, accoutrements. [15th–19th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene: Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, →OCLC, book IV, canto VIII, stanza VI:

     Vpon a day as ſhe him ſate beſide, / By chance he certaine miniments forth drew, / Which yet with him as relickes did abide / Of all the bounty which Belphebe threw / On him, whilſt goodly grace ſhe did him ſhew: […]

3. (obsolete) Something used as a defence. [16th–19th c.]
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     other muniments and petty helps

Derived terms

• muniment house

Middle French

Noun

muniment m (plural munimens)

1. reinforcement; fortification
2. (law) muniment

References

• muniment on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Noun

muniment oblique singular, m (oblique plural munimenz or munimentz, nominative singular munimenz or munimentz, nominative plural muniment)

1. reinforcement; fortification
2. (law) muniment

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (muniment)