‖ placitum Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈplæsɪtəm)
Pl. placita.
[L., an opinion, determination, maxim, prop. neuter pa. pple. of placēre to please; in med.L. the sentence of a court, a fine, a trial, a plea.]
The decree of a judge, the decision or determination of a public assembly, a court of justice, or the like; hence ‘the public assemblies of all degrees of men where the king presided, and where they consulted upon the great affairs of the kingdom’ (Blount's Law Dict. 1717). Also, in pl. the proceedings at such assemblies or courts, debates, trials at law, pleadings or pleas.
| 1668 Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 22 The placita or decretals of the Redeemer. 1706 Phillips, Placitum, a Sentence of the Court, an Opinion, an Ordinance or Decree;..In our Common-Law, Placita signifies Pleas or Pleadings; it was also sometimes taken for Penalties or Fines. 1769 Robertson Chas. V (1796) I. 269 In a placitum or trial in the presence of Charlemagne. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. II. xxi. 413 If the placita of their predecessors were not lost sight of or neglected. 1864 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. ix. (1889) 138 The placita at which these laws were framed or published, would not have been crowded, as of yore, by armed freemen. |