proviso
(prəʊˈvaɪzəʊ)
Pl. -oes (6–7 -os).
[a. L. prōvīsō, abl. neut. sing. pa. pple. of prōvid-ēre to provide, as used in med.L. legal phrase prōvīsō quod ‘it being provided that’ (1350 in Du Cange).]
‖ 1. The L. ablative absolute = ‘it being provided’, used conjunctively. Obs. rare.
| 1596 Bacon Max. & Use Com. Law (1635) 47 Not extendable for the debts of the party after his death: proviso, not to put away the land from his next heire. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xiv. 350 If this be an excursion, let it be pardoned, Proviso, that we remember that the Planets have the great hand in this remarkable Tempest. |
2. A clause inserted in a legal or formal document, making some condition, stipulation, exception, or limitation, or upon the observance of which the operation or validity of the instrument depends; a condition; hence, generally, a stipulation, provision.
| 1467 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 421 Item, [the price] for do makenge of provyso is xx.d. 1473 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 84/2 Grauntes made by us..excepte and forprised oute of this proviso. 1485 Act 1 Hen. VII, c. 9 Notwithstondyng eny acte ordenance graunt or proviso in this present parliament made. 1489 in Trevelyan Papers (Camden) 93 With the same condicions and provisoes. Ibid. 94. 1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 15 The seid acte of restitucion wyth the Provysowes conteyned in the same. 1610 Histrio-m. vi. 236 Sirs, those provisos will not serve the turn. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) Advt., The papists per proviso were such as had provisoes in that act [the Act of Settlement]. 1765 Museum Rust. IV. 260 Lucerne will grow very well in clay land, with proviso the ground works well. 1864 Bowen Logic ix. 298 The Major Premise of the sophism is not true except with a proviso or limitation. 1878 F. Harrison in Fortn. Rev. Nov. 692 There are some other provisoes with which I think it is necessary to guard Austin's analyses of primary legal notions. |
† b. trial by proviso: a trial at the instance of the defendant in a case in which the plaintiff, after issue joined, did not proceed to trial. Obs.
| [1607 Cowell Interpr., Proviso,..if the plaintife or demandaunt desist in prosecuting an action, by bringing it to a triall, the defendant or tenent may take out the venire facias to the Shyreeue: which hath in it these words, Prouiso quod, &c. to this ende, that if the plaintife take out any writ to that purpose, the shyreeue shall summon but one Iurie vpon them both.] 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. xxiii. 357 The defendant..willing to discharge himself from the action, will himself undertake to bring on the trial... Which proceeding is called the trial by proviso; by reason of the clause then inserted in the sheriff's venire, viz. ‘proviso, that if two writs come to your hands..you shall execute only one of them’. |
3. Naut. See quot. 1867.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 45 To more a Prouiso, is to haue one anchor in the riuer, and a hawser a shore, which is mored with her head a shore. 1710 in J. Harris Lex. Techn. II. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Proviso, a stern-fast or hawser carried to the shore to steady by. A ship with one anchor down and a shore-fast is moored a proviso. |