Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†STELLIONATE, n. Also -at. [′stɛljənet]
Sc. (from Civil) Law: a crime for which there is no specific name, applied to: 1. a species of fraud in which one disposes of the same right separately to two or more different people or of a right which is not his to dispose of.Sc. 1701 Acts Parl. Scot. (1844) X. 256:
Guilty of the most gross ofens of stellionat and falshood in the world.Sc. 1730 W. Forbes Institutes II. i. 169:
Stellionate is a general Word signifying any Crime committed by Fraud wanting a more particular Name. It is so called because of the Variety of its Nature, from Stellio a subtil Kind of Lizzard having its Back spotted, as it were with Stars.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 945:
Fraudulent bankruptcy, one kind of stellionate.
2. “innominate offences against the person” (Sc. 1871 Erskine Institute II. 1216 note (a)). See 1904 quot.Sc. 1797 D. Hume Punishment of Crimes II. 47:
We have, besides, in our law, the general term of stellionate, borrowed from the Roman practice, where it was applied to every offence that was not distinguished by a peculiar name, and which, if it is thought worth while, may be employed in such a case, along with the full description of the injury.Sc. 1842 Justiciary Reports I. 415:
The crime of Stellionate and Real Injury, more particularly the wickedly and feloniously administering an excessive and injurious quantity of ardent spirits to a child of tender years.Sc. 1904 A. M. Anderson Crim. Law 160:
Stellionate. This term has not been in use since 1842, and may now be regarded as obsolete. It denoted a real injury to the person of a serious nature, such as severe burning, thrusting a needle into the eye, or any grave injury which took effect internally, as through the operation of drugs.
