| leg-, lex (Latin: pertaining to the law, legal).From Latin legalis and lex, legis, law; lex is singular while leges is plural. illegal, illegality: Not legal or lawful; contrary to, or forbidden by, law. illegalize: To render illegal.
 illegitimate: 1. Not legitimate, not in accordance with or authorized by law; unauthorized, unwarranted; spurious; irregular, improper.  2. Not born in lawful wedlock; not recognized by law as lawful offspring; spurious, bastard. illegitimately: In an illegitimate manner; unlawfully; without authority; spuriously.
 legal: 1.  Of or pertaining to law; falling within the province of law.  2. Belonging to or characteristic of the profession of the law. 3. Such as is required or appointed by law; founded upon law; deriving authority from law. 4. Something connected with law; a legal formality; a legal notice. legalese: 1. The complicated technical language of legal documents.  2. Language typical of lawyers, laws, legal forms, etc., characterized by archaic usage, prolixity (wordy and tedious), redundancy, and extreme thoroughness. legalism, legalistic: 1. A strict and usually literal adherence to he law.  2. A disposition to exalt the importance of law or formulated rule in any department of action. legalist, legalistic: 1. A stickler for legality.  2. One versed in the law; one who views things from a legal standpoint. legality: 1. Attachment to or observance of law or rule.  2. In theology, insistence on the letter of the law; reliance on works for salvation, rather than on free grace. 3. The spirit or way of thinking characteristic of the legal profession; pl. points of manner or speech indicative of this. 4. The quality of being legal or in conformity with the law; lawfulness. In early use, legitimacy. legalize, legalization:  To make legal or conformable to law; to invest with the authority of law; to authorize, justify, sanction.
 legally: In a legal manner; according to law, lawfully. Also, in a legal sense; from the point of view of law.
 legislate: To perform the function of legislation; to make or enact laws.
 legislation: 1. The action of making or giving laws; the enactment of laws, lawgiving; an instance of this.  2. The enactments of a legislator or legislature; the whole body of enacted laws. legislative: The power of legislating or making laws; the body in which this power is vested, the legislature.
 legislator: One who makes laws (for a people or nation); a lawgiver; a member of a legislative body.
 legislatress, legislatrix: A female legislator.
 legislature: A body of persons invested with the power of making the laws of a country or state; specifically, (U.S.) the legislative body of a State or Territory, as distinguished from Congress.
 legist: One well versed or skilled in the law; a jurist.
 ligitimacy: 1. The fact of being a legitimate child.  2. The condition of being in accordance with law or principle. Now often, with respect to a sovereign's title, in a narrower sense: The fact of being derived by regular descent; occasionally the principle of lineal succession to the throne, as a political doctrine. 3. Conformity to rule or principle; lawfulness. legitimate: 1. Of a child: Having the status of one lawfully begotten; entitled to full filial rights. Said also of a parent, and of lineal descent.  2. Conforming to law or rule; sanctioned or authorized by law or right; lawful; proper. legitimatize: To render legitimate or lawful, in various senses; especially, to render (a child) legitimate by legal enactment or otherwise.
 lex: 1. In medieval jurisprudence, a body or collection of various laws peculiar to a given nation or people; not a code in the modern sense, but an aggregation or collection of laws not codified or systematized.  2. In modern American and British jurisprudence, a system of body of laws, written or unwritten, or so much thereof as may be applicable to a particular case or question, considered as being local or peculiar to a given state, country, or jurisdiction, or as being different from the laws or rules relating to the same subject-matter which prevail in some other place. 3. In old English law, a body or collection of laws, and particularly the Roman or civil law. 4. Lex is used in a purely juridical sense, law, and not also right; while jus has an ethical as well as a juridical meaning, not only law, but right. 5. Other specific meanings of the word in Roman jurisprudence were as follows: Positive law, as opposed to natural. That system of law that descended from the Twelve Tables, and formed the basis of all the Roman law. The terms of a private covenant; the condition of an obligation. A form of words prescribed to be used upon particular occasions. privilege: 1. A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by a person, or a body or class of persons, beyond the common advantages of others; an exemption in a particular case from certain burdens or liabilities.  2. A bill of law in favor or against an individual (privus, "single, private" plus leg, stem of lex, legis, "law". |