Trinity term

English
The Royal Courts of Justice in London, UK, the seat of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal of England and Wales

Etymology

Trinity + term. The word Trinity is from Old French trinite (or ternite, trenite, trinetei, trinitiet, trinitet), from Latin trīnitātem, accusative singular of trīnitās (“the number three; a triad; the Trinity”), from trīni (from trīnus (“triple”), from trēs, from Proto-Italic *trēs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + -itās (from Proto-Italic *-itāts and *-otāts, from Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts (“suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being”)). The Christian feast day of Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Whitsunday or Pentecost, occurs during this term; it falls at the end of May or in early June.

Pronunciation

Noun

Trinity term (plural Trinity terms)

  1. The fourth and final term of the legal year, running from May to July, during which the upper courts of England and Wales, and Ireland, sit to hear cases.
    • 1845, R. Levinge Swift, “Appendix. Lord Lyndhurst’s Orders of 3rd April, 1828, (Amended by Lord Brougham’s Orders, 23rd November, 1831.)”, in The Orders of the High Court of Chancery, from Hilary Term 1828 to Trinity Term 1845, as at Present Applicable to the Practice: With the Cases Decided under each Order, London: Owen Richards, law bookseller and publisher, 194. Fleet-Street, OCLC 39819865, pages 8–9:
      [Order] XIX. That whenever the time allowed for any of the following purposes, that is to say, for amending any bill, for filing, delivering, and referring exceptions to any answer, or for obtaining a Master's report upon any exceptions, would expire in the interval between the last seal after Trinity term and the first seal before Michaelmas term, or between the last seal after Michaelmas term and the first seal before Hilary term, such time shall extend to and include the day of the general seal then next ensuing.
  2. The third and final academic term of the universities of Oxford and Dublin, and other educational institutions, running from April to June. The term was modelled after the legal term, but does not begin and end on the same dates.
    • 1813, “University Terms, and How Many are Required to be Kept for each Degree”, in The Oxford University Calendar, for the Year 1813, Oxford: Printed by Munday and Slatter, for J. Parker; and F[rancis] C[harles] and J[ames] Rivington, London, OCLC 270591918, page 65:
      There are four terms in the year, viz. […] 4. Trinity term, which begins on Wednesday after Whitsunday, and ends on the Saturday after the Act, which is always on the first Tuesday in July.

Usage notes
  • At present in England and Wales, Trinity term begins on the second Tuesday after the spring holiday, which is the bank holiday on the last Monday in May or any day appointed instead of that day. It ends on 31 July, unless that date falls on a Saturday or Sunday in which case the term ends on the Friday immediately preceding that date.[1] In Ireland it begins on the Wednesday following Whitsun week and ends on 31 July.[2]

Coordinate terms

Michaelmas term • Hilary term • Easter term • Trinity term

References
  1. “Practice Direction 39B – Court Sittings”, in Ministry of Justice‎, 16 May 2014, archived from the original on 27 March 2016, paragraphs 1.1(1)(d), 1.1(1A)(b) and 1.1(2).
  2. “Rules of the Superior Courts”, in Courts Service Ireland‎, accessed 9 November 2016, archived from the original on 1 April 2016, Order 118(1).

Further reading
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.