fieri facias
- noun
- /ˈfɪəri ˈfeɪʃəs/
- UK
:
fieri facias
- The court issued a fieri facias to seize the debtor's assets in order to satisfy the debt.
Examples
-
Under either system, one way to enforce the money judgment would have been through the writ of fieri facias ("fi. fa.") (163), a court order.
Academic text (2018) -
After the judgment, the creditor obtained a fieri facias to collect the unpaid amount.
-
To enforce the court's decision, the lawyer filed a fieri facias against the debtor's property.
Synonyms
53
9.0
Taking and holding a person's property to make them pay a debt
2
8.4
A court order to take someone's property to pay a debt
The legal taking of someone's property to get money they owe
Property taken by legal order to pay a debt
Surface Forms
Morphology
fieri + facias
Fieri facias is a fossilized Latin legalism whose constituents are not English words with accessible meanings for a B1 learner, so the writ’s meaning (seizure of property to satisfy a judgment) cannot be derived compositionally. As a specialized legal term/loanword its semantics are institutional and idiomatic rather than transparently built from the parts, making it opaque to learners.
Etymology
Fieri facias comes from Latin words fieri and facias meaning 'let it be done'. Courts used it as an order telling officials to take a debtor's goods and sell them to pay what the court decided, so today it means an order to seize property to pay a debt.