Dictionary

obiter dictum en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌoʊbɪɾɚ ˈdɪktəm/ (General-American)
• /ˌəʊbɪtə ˈdɪktəm/ (UK)

Etymology

From Latin obiter dictum (“something said by the way”).

Meanings

1. An incidental remark; especially (law) a statement or remark in a court's judgment that is not essential to the disposition of the case.
   • All I know is that we had a patent suction jack—for of course we daren't use leverage—capable of raising five tons dead weight drawing on a stone weighing something less than five hundredweight and it couldn't budge it a hair. No, sir; do what we might it had us beaten to cold cinders. And if you want my obiter dictum I should say the biggest thing in W.S. enigmas is waiting patiently there for some bright boy to come along and scoop it. 1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
   • Casual obiter dicta by men of accepted godliness belonged to a different category from the ecstatic claims to immediate revelation made by obscure persons who thrust themselves into the limelight […]. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 128:
   • However, McHugh J noted obiter dicta that if the meaning of the word was construed at that level of abstraction today, ‘it would deny the Parliament of the Commonwealth the power to legislate for same sex marriages[…]’. 2010, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, “The Text through Time”, in Statute Law Review:

Forms

Translations (5)

cmn 附論 /附论 (statement not essential to the disposition of the case) · es opinión accesoria (statement not essential to the disposition of the case) · cmn 附帶意見 /附带意见 (statement not essential to the disposition of the case) · cmn 附言 (statement not essential to the disposition of the case) · fi sivuhuomautus (statement not essential to the disposition of the case)