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stellionate

[ stel-yuh-nit, -neyt ]

noun

, Civil Law, Scots Law.
  1. any crime of unspecified class that involves fraud, especially one that involves the selling of the same property to different people.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of stellionate1

1615–25; < Latin stelliōnātus deceit, underhandedness, equivalent to stelliōn- (stem of stelliō ) lizard, crafty person + -ātus -ate 3
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Example Sentences

It existed, indeed, in ancient Rome, and was comprehended under the general term of stellionate, from stelio, a little subtle serpent, common in Italy.

Thus a too artful fraud causes the aggravating crime called stellionate, and a cheat becomes a forger when he has the cunning to sap the very foundations of our security in written documents.

This sale is really a stellionate and an extortion; but by the legal fiction of the right of property, this same sale, severely punished, we know not why, in other cases, is a source of profit and value to the proprietor.

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