Etymology

certiorari

cer·tio·ra·ri
C3E1R1T1I1O1R1A1R1I1

Today it means: A grant of the right of an appeal to be heard by an appellate court where that court has discretion to choose which appeals it will hear. Full definition →

Latin certiōrō
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromcertiōrō“to make certain”
  2. English todaycertiorari

From the present passive infinitive of Latin certiōrō (“to make certain”), from the words used at the beginning of these writs when they were written in Latin: certiorārī volumus (“[we] wish to be made certain”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.