writ of election
- noun
- /raɪt əv ɪˈlɛkʃən/
- UK
:
auto de elección
- To fill the unexpected vacancy in Congress, the president signed a writ of election to schedule a special election.
Examples
-
The governor issued a writ of election to ensure a new representative was chosen after the previous one resigned.
-
Dissolution causes the writ of election to be served, which requires a general election to be held within two months.
Blog text (31) -
In our state, a writ of election is necessary whenever a political position becomes vacant to maintain proper representation.
Synonyms
33
8.2
A formal written court order telling someone to do or not do something
1
8.2
A document from a court that orders someone to do or stop something
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'writ' is a legal document and 'election' is a voting process, so 'writ of election' straightforwardly denotes a legal document ordering an election. This 'writ of + N' pattern follows standard English noun-modifier composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Writ of election comes from old law. A writ is a written order, so a writ of election is the official paper that tells officials to hold an election, which is why it means 'an official legal document that orders an election'.