attentat

A1T1T1E1N1T1A1T1
/ˌætɑnˈtɑː/

noun

Anything whatsoever, as a ruling, by the judge of a lower court in a matter pending an appeal.

Scrabble 8

Meanings

nounattentat (plural attentats)

plural attentats · alternative attentate

  1. obsoletelawAnything whatsoever, as a ruling, by the judge of a lower court in a matter pending an appeal.

    All the several acts of one court day constitute, with reference to attentats, but one act, notwithstanding an appeal intermediate between those acts (h).

    1842, Richard Burn, The Ecclesiastical Law, 9th edition, volume 4, page 217
    1 more example

    An attentat, in the language of the civil and canon laws, is anything, whatsoever, wrongfully innovated or attempted in the suit by the judge à quo, pending an appeal.[…]In Chichester v. Donegal (3) it was intimated by Sir John Nicholl that “The regular course for procuring the revocation of attentats was by a separate proceeding, civil or criminal, as against a judge à quo, and that it was not by charging the supposed attentats, accumulatively, in a mere ordinary libel of appeal.”

    1848, Archibald John Stephens, A Practical Treatise of the Laws Relating to the Clergy, volume 1, page 33
  2. obsoletelawAny step wrongly innovated or attempted by an inferior judge in a suit.
  3. obsoleteAn attempted assault or assassination of a political figure; a politically motivated attempted assault.

    Their detestation of Popular Attentates, upon the Person or Authoritie of Princes.

    1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC
    3 more examples

    The first attempt was the enactment of the Belgian so-called attentat clause by Belgium in 1856, following the case of Jacquin ² in 1854. A French manufaturer named Jules Jacquin, domiciled in Belgium, and a foreman of his factory named Célestin Jacquin, who was also a Frenchman, tried to cause an explosion on the railway line between Lille and Calais with the intention of murdering the Emperor Napolen III. France requested the extradition of the two criminals, but the Belgian Court of Appeal had to refuse the surrender on account of the Belgian extradition law interdicting the surrender of political prisoners.

    1920, Lassa Oppenheim, edited by Ronald Roxburgh, International Law: A Treatise, volume 1, page 516

    By the end of nineteenth century the attentat clause became a general exception in making of extradition treaties. The 1933 Montevideo Convention on Extradition by its Article 5 incorporated the exception in nature of attentat clause in the general protection against extradition, already made available to the political offenders under Article 3(2).

    2004, U. N. Gupta, The Human Rights: Conventions And Indian Law, page 146

    On the great day Ilitch made up his mind that the assassination should take place after all, and he gave orders for the disposition of the conspirators in the street. They were so naïve that it does not seem to have struck them as odd that he himself proposed to take no part in the attentat.

    2010, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia, page 360

Origin

  1. Frenchattentat
  2. Latinattentātus
  3. Englishattentat

A variant of attemptate assimilated to Latin attentātus and French attentat.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with attentat

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Cite this entry
APA

attentat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/attentat

MLA

“attentat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/attentat. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “attentat,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/attentat.

Source: attentat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.