nisi prius
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.32 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
In the 19th century, those legal actions tried before judges of the King's Bench Division, and in the early 20th century those actions tried at assize by a judge given a commission.
Uncountable
Etymology
From Latin nisi prius (“unless previously”), from the first two words of the old Latin writ summoning the juries to appear at Westminster unless, before the day appointed, the judges had come to the county.
Origin
- Source language: Latin