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Perjury – Its Etymology

  • Writer: Kirk Hartley
    Kirk Hartley
  • Apr 9, 2013
  • 1 min read

From the Tuesday April 9 entry from the Visual Thesaurus – Word of the Day

"Well I Swear! Word of the Day: perjury

The -jury part of today’s word is from the same source as the word jury but it’s pretty hard to get at the meaning by composition. Jury is ultimately from a Latin verb that means "swear," and the per- bit, in this case, means "beyond the limits." So perjury is beyond the limits of swearing, when the swearing is the kind where you’re supposed to be telling the truth under oath."

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About Kirk

Since becoming a lawyer in 1983, Kirk’s 35+ years of practice have focused on advising a wide range of corporations, associations, and individuals (as both plaintiffs and defendants) on both tort and commercial law issues centered around “mass torts.”

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