mittimus

English

Etymology

From Latin mittimus (the opening word of such a document), first-person plural of mittō (“send”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪtɪməs/

Noun

mittimus (plural mittimuses or mittimi)

1. (law, archaic outside the US) A warrant issued for someone to be taken into custody.
   • 1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act III, signature F2, verso:

     Away George, away, raise the watch at Ludgate, and bring a Mittimus from the Iustice for this desperate villaine.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter X, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:

     But she pertinaciously refused to make any response. So that he was about to make her mittimus to Bridewell when I departed.

2. A writ for moving records from one court to another.
   • 2013 March 31, Mark Morgenstein, “Suspect in prisons chief's death may have been freed 4 years early”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Next, sometimes the same clerk, but often a second clerk, who may not have been in the courtroom, types up the mittimus, the formal court order that directs corrections offers^[sic] to commit someone to prison, and something could get lost in translation there.

3. A formal dismissal from a situation.

Latin

Verb

mittimus

1. first-person plural present active indicative of mittō