Did You Know?
"For a farewell to our jurisprudent, I wish unto him the gladsome light of jurisprudence. . . ." With this valedictory to English jurist Sir Thomas Littleton, another jurist, Sir Edward Coke, welcomed two new words into English. In 1628, his "jurisprudence" meant "knowledge of or skill in law," a now archaic sense that reflects the literal meaning of the word. "Jurisprudence" goes back to Latin "prudentia juris" (literally "skill in law"), from which was derived the Late Latin formation "jurisprudentia," and subsequently our word. The noun "jurisprudent" means "one skilled in law" -- in other words, "a jurist." There's also "jurisprude," a 20th-century back- formation created from "jurisprudence" with influence from "prude." It means "one who makes ostentatious show of jurisprudential learning."
