"Choate" (, ; , ), as used in

American law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as ...

, means "completed or perfected in and of itself", or "perfected, complete, or certain". The word became the subject of many discussions after

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

associate justice

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...

admonished an attorney for using the word during

oral argument Oral arguments are spoken presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer (or parties when representing themselves) of the legal reasons why they should prevail. Oral argument at the appellate level accompanies written briefs, which also ...

at the high court as if it were an antonym of "inchoate", relating that the word did not exist.James B. Levy, "Justice Scalia admonishes lawyer: 'Choate ain't a word'", Legal Writing Prof Blog, January 13, 2010, found a
Law Professors blog and website
Accessed January 14, 2009.Debra Cassens Weiss, "U.S. Supreme Court: Law Dictionaries Accept 'Choate,' Although Scalia Has Long Disagreed", January 4, 2010, ''

ABA Journal The ''ABA Journal'' (since 1984, formerly ''American Bar Association Journal'', 1915–1983, evolved from '' Annual Bulletin'', 1908–1914) is a monthly legal trade magazine and the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. It is no ...

'', found a
ABA Journal online
Accessed January 14, 2009. The

Merriam-Webster Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...

does not list the controversial word other than as a biographical reference to a surname ( Rufus Choate, 1799–1859, an American jurist) and to an educational institution bearing that proper name from its founders. American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

Ben Zimmer Benjamin Zimmer (born 1971) is an American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is a language columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He was formerly a language columnist for ''The ...

argues that, although faulty, its use among

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solici ...

s has been documented since at least 1828, and it was used by

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the U ...

, among other legal luminaries of the 20th century. It is included in most legal dictionaries and lexicons; however, ''

Black's Law Dictionary ''Black's Law Dictionary'' is the most frequently used legal dictionary in the United States. Henry Campbell Black (1860–1927) was the author of the first two editions of the dictionary. History The first edition was published in 1891 by West ...

'' editor-in-chief Bryan Garner essentially agrees with Scalia. Nonetheless, Garner admits its common acceptance and use within the legal profession. In ''

IRS v. McDermott The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

'', 507 U.S. 447 (1993), Scalia quoted a 1954

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great v ...

, "but substituted '' o longer inchoate' for choate". "No longer inchoate" is a phrase used in other contexts as well to convey a more exact meaning.Google.com search results for "no longer inchoate"
Accessed January 14, 2009. Antonyms listed by the ''

'' for "inchoate" are "adult", "full-blown", "full-fledged", "mature", "ripe", and "ripened". "Choate" has been used in several legal contexts, for example, any "choate right is an undefeatable right that is totally valid and ... totally free from encumbrances", and a "choate lien is ... certain and definite". Such a lien is a perfected

security interest In finance, a security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property (usually referred to as the ''collateral'') which enables the creditor to have recourse to the property if the debtor defaults in maki ...

as used in the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Code and

Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of Uniform Acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...

. In the context of reference to

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the per ...

s, rights in

equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership * Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...

, and inchoate crimes, it has been used as the

antonym In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members ...

of inchoate.

Etymology

The term ''choate'' is a

back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the ...

from the word " inchoate" that dates from 1534, Merriam-Webster Dictionary listing for ''inchoate''
/ref> meaning "in process of formation". Because the prefix " in-", meaning "not", frequently is used to create antonyms, superficially the relationship of the two words seems to make sense. However, the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

origin of "inchoate", the verb ', begins with a different use of the prefix "in-", wherein the prefix denotes "within".Ben Zimmer
"On Language: Choate: Why does Justice Antonin Scalia hate this word?"
''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' Sunday, December 31, 2009. Accessed January 14, 2009. Hence, "inchoate" was not derived from "choate", but the reverse has occurred with apparent misunderstanding of the Latin source, leading to its being challenged as an incongruent word.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choate (Law) American legal terminology