Fiat

views updated May 18 2018

FIAT

[Latin, Let it be done.] In old English practice, a short order or warrant of a judge or magistrate directing some act to be done; an authority issuing from some competent source for the doing of some legal act.

One of the proceedings in the Englishbankruptcypractice: a power, signed by the lord chancellor and addressed to the court of bankruptcy, authorizing the petitioning creditor to prosecute his complaint before that court. By the statute 12 & 13 Vict., c. 116, fiats were abolished.

Arbitrary or authoritative order or decision.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law

fiat

views updated Jun 27 2018

fi·at / ˈfēət; ˈfēˌät/ • n. a formal authorization or proposition; a decree: trying to regulate by fiat. ∎ an arbitrary order: worthless by bureaucratic fiat.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

fiat

views updated May 18 2018

fiat authoritative sanction or command. XVII. — L. ‘let it be done’, 3rd sg. pres. subj. of fierī (see BE), used as passive of facere to do.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

Fiat

views updated May 09 2018

Fiat (or FIAT) (ˈfiːət, -æt) Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Motor Works in Turin)

The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH