Timeline for What does the word 'greeting' mean in a writ?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 8, 2022 at 22:33 | vote | accept | sjy | ||
| Oct 29, 2017 at 10:58 | comment | added | JDF | It often is in the form, 'To all whom these presents shall come, greeting'. | |
| Sep 30, 2017 at 15:14 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | This morning I attended the installation service for the new Dean of Derby Cathedral. The Bishop read out a formal document beginning in exactly the same style - "[The Bishop of Derby] to [the new Dean], Greeting". | |
| Sep 21, 2017 at 13:26 | comment | added | sjy | Thanks for the reference! It didn't occur to me to look into the history of writs before they were expressed in modern English, but now that I have done so, it seems clear that the form of the writ dates back to the Anglo-Saxons (Harmer 1952). It seems that originally the Old English word gret was used, and after the Norman conquest writs were expressed in Latin using the greeting salutem. I will do some more research on the transition to modern English and add a more complete answer later. | |
| Sep 20, 2017 at 16:14 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | The following website gives examples of medieval writs (presumably translated from Latin) in the two indented paragraphs. earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/reference/essays/writs | |
| Sep 20, 2017 at 0:57 | comment | added | sjy | Can you provide a source for this, or an example of another document in which 'Greeting' is used as a salutation? | |
| Sep 19, 2017 at 7:41 | history | answered | Kate Bunting | CC BY-SA 3.0 |