29-437: Letters patent ( plural form for singular and plural ) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch , president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly , title or status to a person or corporation . Letters patent can be used for the creation of corporations , government offices, to grant city status or coats of arms . Letters patent are issued for
58-578: A royal decree made under the royal prerogative and are treated as statute law. Letters patent do not require the consent of parliament . In some Commonwealth realms, such as Canada and New Zealand ( Letters Patent, 1947 in Canada and Letters Patent 1983 in New Zealand), letters patent serve as formal legal instruments that officially grant powers to the governor general . An important function of Letters Patent in many Commonwealth Realms
87-479: A legal office. Depending on the country, specific duties may relate to organizing the justice system , overseeing the public prosecutor and national investigative agencies (e.g. the American Federal Bureau of Investigation ), and maintaining the legal system and public order . Some ministries have additional responsibilities in related policy areas such as overseeing elections , directing
116-639: A ministry of justice, but rather a Directorate of Judicial Services (head: Secretary of Justice) that oversees the administration of justice. Vatican City , a country under the sovereignty of the Holy See , also does not possess a ministry of justice. Instead, the Governorate of Vatican City State (head: President of the Governorate of Vatican City State), the legislative body of the Vatican, includes
145-469: A number distinction, they may appear as singulare tantum in one language but as plurale tantum in another. Compare English water to the Hebrew plurale tantum , מַיִם ( mayim ). In English, such words are almost always mass nouns . Some uncountable nouns can be alternatively used as count nouns when meaning "a type of", and the plural means "more than one type of". For example, strength
174-660: A pair of scissors is just en sax ( lit. ' one scissor ' ), not a plurale tantum . Similarly, in French , a pair of trousers is un pantalon , while in Spanish un pantalón (singular) and unos pantalones (plural) are both valid ways to refer to a single garment. Additionally, in German , the term "Jeans" which is borrowed from the English, is rendered singular feminine as die Jeans in accordance with
203-476: A single alphabet letter ( littera ). Letters patent are a form of open or public proclamation and a vestigial exercise of extra-parliamentary power by a monarch or president. They can thus be contrasted with the Act of Parliament , which is in effect a written order by Parliament involving assent by the monarch in conjunction with its members. No explicit government approval is contained within letters patent, only
232-443: A singular form used only attributively . Phrases such as "trouser press" and "scissor kick" contain the singular form, but it is considered nonstandard to say "a trouser" or "a scissor" on its own (though in the fashion and tailoring industries use of "trouser" in the singular to refer to a particular style occurs ). That accords with the strong preference for singular nouns in attributive positions in English, but some words are used in
261-480: A singular form; esp. a non-count noun." Such nouns may refer to a unique singular object (essentially a proper noun), but more often than not, they refer to uncountable nouns, either mass nouns (referring to a substance that cannot be counted as distinct objects, such as 'milk') or collective nouns (referring to objects that may in principle be counted but are referred to as one, such as 'popcorn' or Arabic تُوت , tut , ' mulberry '). Given that they do not have
290-638: A variety of other purposes. They function dually as public records and personal certificates. In the United States, the forgery of letters patent granted by the President is a crime subject to fine, imprisonment up to ten years or both ( 18 U.S.C. § 497 ). Without letters patent, a person is unable to assume an appointed office. Such an issue prompted the Marbury v. Madison suit, where William Marbury and three others petitioned
319-554: A vitreous substance (a mass noun )—may be singular or plural. Some words, such as "brain" and "intestine", can be used as either plurale tantum nouns or count nouns. The term for a noun that appears only in the singular form is singulare tantum ( pl. : singularia tantum ), such as the English words: information, dust, and wealth. Singulare tantum is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as " Gram . A word having only
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#1732783734522348-478: Is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice . The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice ( minister for justice in a very few countries) or a secretary of justice . In some countries, the head of the department may be called the attorney general , for example in the United States . Monaco is an example of a country that does not have
377-725: Is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular form is rarely used. In English, pluralia tantum are often words that denote objects that occur or function as pairs or sets, such as spectacles, trousers, pants, scissors, clothes, or genitals. Other examples are for collections that, like alms , cannot conceivably be singular. Other examples include suds , jeans , outskirts, odds , riches, gallows , surroundings, thanks, and heroics. In some languages, pluralia tantum refer to points or periods of time (for example, Latin kalendae 'calends,
406-671: Is essential that the written grant should be in the form of a public document so other inventors can consult it both to avoid infringement (while the patent remains in force) and to understand how to put it into practical use (once the patent rights expire). In the Holy Roman Empire , Austrian Empire , and Austria-Hungary , imperial patent was also the highest form of generally binding legal regulations, e.g. Patent of Toleration , Serfdom Patent , etc. The opposite of letters patent are letters close ( Latin : litterae clausae ), which are personal in nature and sealed so that only
435-502: Is to act as the order from the Monarch authorising the establishment and powers of a Royal Commission or a Special Commission of Inquiry. This can be seen in jurisdictions such as Australia where Letters Patent are frequently issued in relation to new and ongoing Royal Commissions . The primary source of letters patent in the United States are intellectual property patents and land patents , though letters patent are issued for
464-585: Is uncountable in Strength is power , but it can be used as a countable noun to mean an instance of [a kind of] strength, as in My strengths are in physics and chemistry. Some words, especially proper nouns such as the name of an individual, are nearly always in the singular form because there is only one example of what that noun means. Pluralia tantum vary arbitrarily between languages. For example, in Swedish ,
493-727: The United States Supreme Court to order James Madison to deliver their letters for appointments made under the previous administration. United States letters patent generally do not fit a specific form, except for the eschatocol , or formal ending: GIVEN under my hand, in [city] the [date] in the year of our Lord [year] and of the Independence of the United States the [years since July 4, 1776]. By [signature of public official issuing letter] Plurale tantum A plurale tantum ( Latin for 'plural only'; pl. pluralia tantum )
522-621: The appointment of representatives of the Crown , such as governors and governors-general of Commonwealth realms , as well as appointing a Royal Commission . In the United Kingdom , they are also issued for the creation of peers of the realm . A particular form of letters patent has evolved into the modern intellectual property patent (referred to as a utility patent or design patent in United States patent law ) granting exclusive rights in an invention or design. In this case, it
551-649: The contents back to the gentry in the shires through normal conversation and social intercourse. Today, for example, it is a convention for the British prime minister to announce that they have left a document they wish to enter the public domain "in the library of the House of Commons ", where it may be freely perused by all members of parliament . Letters patent are so named from the Latin verb patī , patior , to lie open, exposed, accessible. The originator's seal
580-462: The first day of the month', German Ferien 'vacation, holiday'), or to events (for example, Finnish häät 'wedding'), or to liquids (for example, Hebrew מַיִם ( mayim ) and Chichewa madzí , both 'water'). A bilingual example is the Latin word fasces that was brought into English; when referring to the symbol of authority, it is a plurale tantum noun in both languages. In English, some plurale tantum nouns have
609-466: The kreplach' would be איינער פון די קרעפּלאַך ( eyner fun di kreplakh ). The Welsh nefoedd , 'heaven', is the plural of nef , which is no longer part of the spoken language. Nefoedd is now used with the singular meaning of 'heaven' and plural of 'heavens'. [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of plurale tantum at Wiktionary Ministry of Justice A justice ministry , ministry of justice , or department of justice ,
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#1732783734522638-466: The ordinary numeral forms found in Polish: trzy filmy/pięć filmów (three films/five films) The Russian деньги ( den'gi , 'money') originally had a singular, деньга ( den'ga ), which meant a copper coin worth half a kopeck . The Yiddish word kreplach is a well known example of a plurale tantum that is also plural only in other languages into which it is borrowed, 'one of
667-400: The plural form even as attributive nouns, such as "clothes peg", "glasses case" – notwithstanding "spectacle case" and "eyeglass case". In English, a word may have many definitions only some of which are pluralia tantum . The word "glasses" (a set of corrective lenses to improve eyesight) is plurale tantum . In contrast, the word "glass"—either a container for drinks (a count noun ) or
696-412: The present day, with most of those to 1625 having been published. In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms , letters patent are royal proclamations granting an office, right, title, or status to a person (and sometimes in regard to corporations and cities). Letters patent take the form of an open letter from the monarch to a subject, although this is a legal fiction and they are in fact
725-402: The recipient can read their contents. Letters patent are thus comparable to other kinds of open letter in that their audience is wide. It is not clear how the contents of letters patent became widely published before collection by the addressee, for example whether they were left after sealing by the king for inspection during a certain period by courtiers in a royal palace, who would disseminate
754-399: The seal or signature of the monarch. Parliament today tolerates only a very narrow exercise of the royal prerogative by issuance of letters patent, and such documents are issued with prior informal government approval, or indeed are now generated by government itself with the monarch's seal affixed as a mere formality. In their original form they were simply written instructions or orders from
783-573: The singular feminine word die Hose meaning "trousers". In some other languages, rather than quantifying a plurale tantum noun with a measure word , special numeral forms are used in such cases. In Polish , for example, "one pair of eyeglasses" is expressed as either jedne okulary (one- plural glasses- plural ) or jedna para okularów (one- singular pair- singular glasses- genitive plural ). For larger quantities, "collective numeral" forms are available: troje drzwi (three doors), pięcioro skrzypiec (five violins). Compare them to
812-666: The sovereign, whose order was law, which were made public to reinforce their effect. For the sake of good governance, it is of little use if the sovereign appoints a person to a position of authority but does not at the same time inform those over whom such authority is to be exercised of the validity of the appointment. According to the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice , there are 92 different types of letters patent. The Patent Rolls are made up of office copies of English (and later United Kingdom) royal letters patent, which run in an almost unbroken series from 1201 to
841-412: Was attached pendent from the document, so that it did not have to be broken in order for the document to be read. They are called "letters" (plural) from their Latin name litterae patentes , used by medieval and later scribes when the documents were written in Latin. This loanword preserves the collective plural "letters" ( litterae ) that the Latin language uses to denote a message as opposed to
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