English law grew up in the times of the Plantagent Kings when the language of the court was French and/or Latin. After a couple of hundred years, English started to be used in legal documents. The writers of legal documents were not always sure whether there was a slight difference in the meaning of the various words available to them so they covered themselves, and their clients / the state, by using two or three words from different roots. E.g. 'Mr. X shall not [do somthing] in any way, shape or form'. Shape comes from a northern european root, form comes from Latin, but they mean exactly the same. (Way has a different meaning.)

English law grew up in the times of the Plantagenet Kings when the language of the court was French and/or Latin. After a couple of hundred years, English started to be used in legal documents. The writers of legal documents were not always sure whether there was a slight difference in the meaning of the various words available to them so they covered themselves, and their clients / the state, by using two or three words from different roots. E.g. 'Mr. X shall not [do something] in any way, shape or form'. Shape comes from a northern European root, form comes from Latin, but they mean exactly the same. (Way has a different meaning.)