John Law

[law] Origin

Law

[law]
noun
1.
Andrew Bon·ar [bon-er] , 1858–1923, English statesman, born in Canada: prime minister 1922–23.
2.
John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier.
3.
William, 1686–1761, English clergyman and devotional writer.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

law
O.E. lagu (pl. laga, comb. form lah-), from O.N. *lagu "law," collective pl. of lag "layer, measure, stroke," lit. "something laid down or fixed," from P.Gmc. *lagan "put, lay" (see lay (v.)). Replaced O.E. æ and gesetnes, which had the same sense development as law. Cf.
EXPAND
also statute, from L. statuere; Ger. Gesetz "law," from O.H.G. gisatzida; Lith. istatymas, from istatyti "set up, establish." Law and order have been coupled since 1796.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

law (lô)
n.

  1. A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.

  2. A set of rules or principles for a specific area of a legal system.

  3. A piece of enacted legislation.

  4. A formulation describing a relationship observed to be invariable between or among phenomena for all cases in which the specified conditions are met.

  5. A generalization based on consistent experience or results.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
law   (lô)  Pronunciation Key 
A statement that describes invariable relationships among phenomena under a specified set of conditions. Boyle's law, for instance, describes what will happen to the volume of an ideal gas if its pressure changes and its temperature remains the same. The conditions under which some physical laws hold are idealized (for example, there are no ideal gases in the real world), thus some physical laws apply universally but only approximately. See Note at hypothesis.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

John(ny) Law definition


  1. n.
    a law officer. : John Law showed up with a piece of paper that says you are in trouble.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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