obiter
English
editEtymology
editAdverb
editobiter (not comparable)
- (formal) Incidentally; in passing.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:, New York, 2001, p.206:
- I will not here stand to discuss obiter, whether stars be causes, or signs; or to apologize for judicial astrology.
Noun
editobiter (plural obiters)
- (law) An obiter dictum; a statement from the bench commenting on a point of law which is not necessary for the judgment at hand and therefore has no judicial weight, as opposed to ratio decidendi.
Coordinate terms
editRelated terms
editAnagrams
editLatin
editEtymology
editAdverb
editobiter (not comparable)
- on the way
- incidentally
References
edit- “obiter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “obiter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- obiter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.