assize
pronunciation
How to pronounce assize in British English:
UK [ə'saɪz]
How to pronounce assize in American English:
US [ə'saɪz]
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- Noun:
- the regulation of weights and measures of articles offered for sale
- an ancient writ issued by a court of assize to the sheriff for the recovery of property
Word Origin
- assize
- assize: [13] Like assess, assize comes ultimately from Latin assidēre, which meant literally ‘sit beside someone’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘near’ and sedēre ‘sit’, related to English sit). In Old French this became asseeir (modern French has asseoir), of which the past participle was assis.The feminine form of this, assise, came to be used as a noun ranging in meaning from the very general ‘act of sitting’ or ‘seat’ to the more specific legal senses ‘sitting in judgement’ and ‘session of a court’ (English session comes ultimately from Latin sedēre too). It was the legal usages which passed into English.=> session, sit, size
- assize (n.)
- "session of a law court," c. 1300 (attested from mid-12c. in Anglo-Latin), from Old French assise "session, sitting of a court" (12c.), properly fem. past participle of asseoir "to cause to sit," from Latin assidere "to sit beside" (see assess). Originally "all legal proceedings of the nature of inquests or recognitions;" hence sessions held periodically in each county of England to administer civil and criminal justice.
Example
- 1. While assize and size once were related to evaluating the amount of tax you pay , assess still is to this day .
- 2. People said this is the time of great assize , I don 't believe , it 's not fair because I do nothing .
- 3. With this little snippet of information it isn 't much of a leap in logic to understand how the word assess might be related to assize and size .
- 4. Yesterday on the main podictionary blog and podcast I talked about the word size and how , when it first came into english , it didn 't mean " bigness " but instead was related to assize , a word meaning " judicial panel . "