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Apr 12, 2013
This week's theme
Terms from law

This week's words
lex loci
hereditament
suborn
mens rea
attorn

This week's comments
AWADmail 563

Next week's theme
Words coined after proper names
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

attorn

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-TUHRN)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To turn over rent, goods, etc. to another.
verb intr.: To agree to be a tenant of a new landlord of the same property.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French atorner (to assign to), from a- (to) + torner (to turn). An attorney is the person one turns to to represent oneself. Earliest documented use: 1458.

USAGE:
"So there was no reason to proceed with the extradition, because they'd already attorned to that jurisdiction."
Windsor Men Won't Be Extradited to US; CBC News (Canada); May 27, 2010.

See more usage examples of attorn in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)

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