cursitor

C3U1R1S1I1T1O1R1

noun

A courier or runner.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

nouncursitor (plural cursitors)

plural cursitors · alternative obsolete cursetor

  1. UKobsoletelawA clerk in the Court of Chancery whose business is to make out original writs.
    1 more example

    When actions are brought in the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, founded upon original writs issuing out of the Courts of Chancery (which writs, as stated in the Report of the 9th of April 1816, it is the duty of the Cursitors to make out) it has been the practice in certain cases for the Filacers of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas respectively, to receive from the Suitors the King's fines (if any) and also the fees payable to the Cursitors in respect of such original writs, and afterwards to account to the Cursitors for the fines and fees so received.

    1817 December 20, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, “Second Report of the Commissioners for Examining into the Duties, Salaries and Emoluments, of the Officers, Clerks and Ministers, of the Several Courts of Justice, in England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed;—as to the Court of Chancery”, in Reports from Committees: Fever; Ireland; Courts of Justice: Session 27 January – 10 June, 1818, volume VII, [London]: [s.n.], published 6 April 1818, →OCLC, page 172

Origin

  1. Latincursitor
  2. Latinrunner
  3. Englishcursitor

From Latin runner; in the legal sense, from Latin cursitor, from the words de cursu, applied in the statute to ordinary writs.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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