Witnesseth, Controversial, Long-Lived Archaism

The word witnesseth, a legal term used in deeds, contracts, and other formal documents, passed away Monday after a decades-long decline and what some say were well-deserved attacks. Those close to the word said it died in a legal form pulled up on a smart phone in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was 517 years old.

One of the most enduring Elizabethan archaisms, witnesseth’s late decline represented a steep fall from its heyday. It rode high on the fear of “changing the form” for more than two centuries. It prospered despite challenges, such as one raised in 1744, when a legal secretary first asked a lawyer, “what is this word, and why are there spaces between the letters?”

Witnesseth maintained its entrenched position in legal documents, although it was more and more often relegated to land deeds, until at least 1957, when a busy real estate lawyer in Waukeegan, Illinois, inadvertently left it out of a draft deed, which a younger lawyer dutifully typed up. The real estate transaction closed without incident, and witnesseth began its slow descent.

Rumors persist among some hostile to witnesseth that the reports of its death are premature and that it is lying low in old formbooks and county real estate filings, waiting to be recognized and used again.