Lawful (pronounced law-fuhl)
(1) Allowed
or permitted by law; not contrary to law.
(2) Recognized
or sanctioned by law; legitimate.
(3) Appointed
or recognized by law; legally qualified.
(4) Acting
or living according to the law; law-abiding.
(5) In role-playing
games, a character having a lawful alignment.
Circa 1600: From Middle English laweful, the construct being law + -ful and conflated with the Middle English leful, leeful & leveful (according to law, lawful, pertaining to law). Law dates from 1250-1300 and was from the Middle English lawe & laȝe, from the Old English lagu (law), from the Old Norse lǫg (law (literally “things laid down or fixed”)), originally the plural of lag (layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke), from the Proto-Germanic lagą (that which is laid down), from the primitive Indo-European legh (to lie). It was cognate with the Icelandic lög (things laid down, law), the Swedish lag (law) and the Danish lov (law). It replaced the Old English ǣ and ġesetnes and despite appearances, was unrelated to the French loi and the Spanish ley, both derived from leǵ- (to gather). The –ful suffix was from the Middle English –ful & -full, from the Old English –ful & -full (full of), from the Proto-Germanic fullō & fullijô (“filling”) and fullaz (-ful), from fullaz (full). It was cognate with the Scots -fu, the Saterland Frisian -ful (-ful), the West Frisian -fol (-ful), the Dutch -vol (-ful), the German -voll (-ful), the Swedish -full (-ful) and the Icelandic –fullur & -fyllur (-ful). It was used to form adjectives from nouns, with the sense of tending to fullness or “as much as can be held by what is denoted by the noun”.
The synonyms
include legal & licit, the words with related meanings including authorized,
constitutional, justifiable, legal, permissible, proper, rightful, statutory,
valid, bona fide, canonical, card-carrying, commanded, condign, decreed, due,
enacted, enforced, enjoined, established.
The spelling lawfull is long obsolete
and the rarely used plural remains lawfuls.
Lawful is an adjective, lawfully an adverb and lawfulness a noun.
Legal (pronounced lee-guhl)
(1)
Permitted by law; lawful.
(2) Of
or relating to law; connected with the law or its administration.
(3)
Appointed, established, or authorized by law; deriving authority from law.
(4) In technical
use, recognized, enforceable, or having a remedy at (common) law rather than in
equity
(5) Of,
relating to, or characteristic of the profession of law or of lawyers:
(6) In
theology, of or relating to the Mosaic Law (the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, once thought to
have be written exclusively by Moses).
(7) In
theology, of or relating to the doctrine that salvation is gained by good works
rather than through free grace.
(8) A
person who acts in a legal manner or with legal authority.
(9) A
foreigner who has entered or resides in a country lawfully (usually in the
plural as “legals”, the more common form being the undocumented “illegals”)
(10) A
person whose status is protected by law.
(11) A
fish or game animal, within specified size or weight limitations, that the law
allows to be caught and kept during an appropriate season.
(12) In
the slang of counter espionage, a foreigner who conducts espionage against a
host country while working there in a legitimate capacity, often in the
diplomatic service.
(13) In
the plural legals, authorized investments that may be made by fiduciaries, as
savings banks or trustees; also used in various commercial contexts to refer to
documents related to contractual or other legal matters.
(14) In
motorsport, vehicles which have passed scrutineering; parts and components
certified as homologated and approved for use in competition.
(14) In
informal use, a person above the age of consent or the permitted drinking age.
(15) In
stationery, of paper or document layouts, a cut of sheet-paper measuring 8½ in
× 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm). known also as “legal-size”; use is restricted
almost wholly to North American markets.
1490–1500:
From the fourteenth century French légal,
from the Latin lēgālis (of or pertaining
to the law), the construct being lēg-
(stem of lēx (an enactment; a
precept, regulation, principle, rule; formal proposition for a law, motion,
bill; a contract, arrangement, contrivance)) + -ālis (the adjective suffix) and a doublet of loyal and leal. The origin is curiously misty. It’s probably related to legere (to gather) from the primitive Indo-European root leg- (to
collect, gather) with derivatives meaning "to speak (ie to “pick out
words”). The noun was historically
supposed to have come from the verb reflecting the idea of "a collection
of rules," but some etymologists suggest the reverse. The mystery is that the verb legare and its compounds all have a
meaning which involves a “task or assignment” an can thus be interpreted as
derivatives of lēx (“law” in its
simple sense). The Proto-Italic root
noun leg- (law) can be interpreted as
a “collection” but whether the root noun existed already in the primitive
Indo-European has never been established.
The sense of "permitted by law" was known as early as the
1640s. Legal is a noun and adjective;
legally is an adverb.
Legal
proved a productive word in the generation of English forms. Legal tender (money which the creditor is
bound by law to accept) is from 1740 and the first legal holiday (one
established by statute or proclamation, during which government business was
usually suspended, was established in 1867).
The adjective medico-legal (of or relating to law and medicine) dates
from 1824 and the noun legalese (the language of legal documents), the
construct being legal + the language name suffix (–ese) was attested from 1914;
technically it can be a mere technical descriptor but tends to be applied
disparagingly in critiques of the turgid and prolix.
The
modern sounding verb legalize (and the related legalized & legalizing) was
actually used as long ago as 1716. The
paralegal (often as para-legal) (one trained in subsidiary legal matters) was
first used in 1972 to describe a kind of legal assistant with skills beyond the
merely clerical and use has expanded, thus far apparently little-affected by
office automation although there is speculation developments in AI (artificial
intelligence) might impact on them as much as trained lawyers.
The
adjective legalistic is from 1843 and was originally used to describe "one
who advocates strict adherence to the law", a use applied especially in
theology after the 1640s although as a formal term, legalism in theology was
first attested only in 1838. Legalistic,
depending on context, can carry neutral or negative connotations and was
sometimes part of the language of criticism used in the 1980s in the squabbles
between the by the “legal sociologists” and the “black-letter” or “substantive”
lawyers. The noun legality (law-abiding
behavior or character) is from the mid-fifteenth century, from the Medieval
Latin legalitatem (nominative legalitas), from the Latin lēgālis (of or pertaining to the law)
Licit (pronounced lis-it)
(1) Legal;
lawful; legitimate; permissible; not forbidden by formal or informal rules; explicitly
established or constituted by law.
(2) A
less common word for lawful
1475–1485:
From the Latin licitus (permitted;
lawful; allowable), past participle of licēre
(to be permitted; it is permitted (impersonal verb)) and replacing the earlier Middle
French licite. In early nineteenth century England, many
disapproved of licit, claiming, entirely unjustly. It was an Americanism. Licit is an adjective, licitly an adverb and licitness
a noun
Lawful, Legal & Licit
Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011
The
terms lawful and legal have long been used interchangeably to convey the sense
of “something against the law” and in many cases that’s either correct or, when
erroneous, of little matter because the context of use makes the real meaning
obvious.
Lawful
deals with the substance of law, legal with the form. For a contract to be legally correct it must
conform to certain criteria such as there being an offer & acceptance, certainty
of terms and consideration (some exchange of value). If a contract complies with the requirements
demanded in law, it is a “legal contract”.
However, a “legal contract” could be executed in which one party arranges
with another to murder some third party.
Murder being against the law, the contract, while remaining “legal” is
void for illegality because the matter contracted is unlawful and the fact that
the legal contract exists might be relevant evidence in a prosecution. Similar conditions attach to the legal state
of possession. To be legally in
possession of something demands certain conditions are fulfilled and if one
buys a car and drives off then one is in legal and lawful possession of the
vehicle. If however one steels a car and
drives off, generally one will be in legal but unlawful possession. A lawful act thus is one authorized or not
forbidden by law. A legal act is that which is in accordance with the technical
conditions defined in law.
Licit
is interesting because it’s so rare yet illicit is co common. The adjective illicit is from the fourteenth
century Old French illicite (unlawful,
forbidden), from the Latin illicitus (not
allowed, unlawful, illegal), from an assimilated form, the construct being i(n)-
(not, opposite of) + licitus (lawful),
past participle of licere (to be
allowed).
Illicit can thus be used as a direct synonym of unlawful but because use has evolved with an overlap to mean also things quite lawful yet disapproved of. Barnaby Joyce’s (b 1967; deputy prime-minister of Australia thrice variously since 2016) adulterous affair was illicit but certainly neither illegal nor unlawful yet, in certain jurisdictions at certain times, it would have been legal but certainly both unlawful & illicit. Licit & Illicit also retain a place in canon law, notably in the abstract definitions in the Roman Catholic Church where it’s considered with the “valid and invalid”. A “valid” act is one which produces the desired effect whereas an act which does not produce the desired effect is labelled "invalid". A “licit” act is one which legitimately has been performed whereas an illicit act is one not legitimately performed. Thus it’s possible for some acts to be illicit yet still be valid. The rules canon lawyers have developed to administer matter of procedure and ritual are long and intricate (although with the benefit of codification) and they contain a formula to determine validity or invalidity. The concept of valida sed illicit (valid but illicit) is a distinction similar to that between “legal” & “lawful” possession in secular law.
Reflecting perhaps the long
tradition of using the word when discussing matters of outrage or immorality, illicit
seems often to be the preferred adjective applied to illegal narcotics regarded
as less harmful, such as cannabis. In December 2023, the Netherlands government announced it would be undertaking a trial (in selected locations) in which the production, sale and consumption of cannabis would (under certain circumstances) become lawful. Contrary to the widespread belief among the generations of who happily have travelled to Amsterdam so spend time in coffee shops (many without having a coffee), smoking weed has not over the decades been lawful, merely "tolerated" by law enforcement agencies. Although not initially enthusiastic about being required, in effect, to ignore the law they were employed to enforce, the police soon become very supportive, noting dealing with stoners was a rarely violent and much more pleasant experience than handling those affected by alcohol.
