Legal Term Dictionary

Search our free database of thousands of legal terms. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms.This dictionary is from the early 20th century and is not to be construed as legal advice.

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  • PROXIMATE
    Immediate; nearest; next in order. -Proximate cause. The proximate cause is the efficient cause, the one that necessarily sets the other causes in operation. The causes that are merely incidental or instruments of a superior or controlling agency are not the proximate causes and the responsible ones, though they may More...
  • PROXIMITY
    Kindred between two persons. Dig. 38, 16, 8. Proximus est cni nemo anteoedit, sn-premns est qnem nemo seqnitnr. He is next whom no one precedes; he is last whom no one follows. Dig. 50, 16, 92.
  • PROXY
    A person who is substituted or deputed by another to represent him and act for him, particularly in some meeting or public body. Also the instrument containing the appointment of such person. The word is said to be contracted from "procuracy/' (g. v.) One who is appointed or deputed by More...
  • PRUDENCE
    Carefulness, precaution, attentiveness, and good judgment as applied to action or conduct That degree of care required by the exigencies or circumstances under which it is to be exercised. Cronk v. Railway Co., 3 S. D. 93, 52 N. W. 420. This term, in the language of the law, Is More...
  • PRYK
    A kind of service of tenure. Blount says it signifles an old-fashioned spur with one point only, which the tenant, holding land by this tenure, was to find for the king. Wharton.
  • PSEUDCYESIS
    In medical jurisprudence. A frequent manifestation of hysteria in women, in which the abdomen is inflated, simulating pregnancy; the patient aiding in the deception.
  • PSYCHO-DIAGNOSIS
    In medical jurisprudence. A method of investigating the origin and cause of any given disease or morbid condition by examination of the mental condition of the patient the application of various psychological tests, and an inquiry into the past history of the patient with a view to its bearing on More...
  • PSYCHOLOGICAL FACT
    In the law of evidence. A fact which can only be perceived mentally; such as the motive by which a person is actuated. Burrill, Circ. Ev. 130, 131.
  • PSYCHOTHERAPY
    A method or system of alleviating or curing certain forms of disease, particularly diseases of the nervous system or such as are traceable to nervous disorders, by suggestion, persuasion, encouragement, the inspiration of hope or confidence, the discouragement of morbid memories, associations, or beliefs, and other similar means addressed to More...
  • PTOMAINES
    In medical jurisprudence. Alkaloidal products of the decomposition or putrefaction of albuminous substances, as, in animal and vegetable tissues. These are sometimes poisonous, but not invariably. Examples of poisonous ptomaines are those occurring in putrefying fish and the tyrotoxi-cons of decomposing miik and milk products.
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