Word of the Day

: July 2, 2012

pandect

noun PAN-dekt

What It Means

1 : a complete code of the laws of a country or system of law

2 : a treatise covering an entire subject

pandect in Context

"Stability and support operations are not, within the pandect of modern conflict, considered war at all but 'military operations other than war,'…." - From an article by Tom Bissell in Harper’s Magazine, January 2006

"Through a cast of improbably named characters (Nutbeam, Diddy Shovel, Tert Card, among many) Proulx regales us with a pandect of Newfoundland lore." - From a book review by Sandra Scofield in the Washington Post Book World, August 1, 1993

Did You Know?

The original pandect was the "Pandectae," a massive fifty-volume digest of Roman civil law that was created under the emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The Latin word "pandectae" is the plural of "pandectes," which means "encyclopedic work" or "book that contains everything." "Pandectes" in turn derives from the Greek "pandekt‡s" ("all-receiving"), from "pan-" ("all") and "dechesthai" ("to receive"). When the word "pandect" first cropped up in English in the mid-16th century, it referred to the complete code of laws of a particular country or system. Its "comprehensive treatise" sense developed later that century.