pollicitation

Definition

Pollicitation (noun)

1. Legal term: A promise that has not yet been accepted by the other party. In contract law, a pollicitation is an offer or proposal that remains unaccepted, and thus does not yet constitute a binding agreement.
2. Rare or formal usage: An unaccepted or unfulfilled promise more generally.

Usage Examples

• (A promise that is not yet legally binding because it has not been accepted.)
• (A reference to the historical legal concept.)

Advanced Usage

• "Pollicitation" in contract formation: The term is specifically used to describe the stage before an agreement is formed, when one party makes a promise but the other has not yet agreed.
  • The court ruled that the written offer was a pollicitation, not a contract, since acceptance was never communicated. (The promise was incomplete legally.)

Variants and Related Words

• Pollicit (verb, rare): To make a promise or offer.

  • He pollicited to donate the land, but the offer was never accepted. (He made a promise that remained unaccepted.)

• Pollicitor (noun, rare): A person who makes a pollicitation.

  • The pollicitor withdrew the offer before it could be accepted. (The person who made the unaccepted promise.)

Synonyms

• Offer: A proposal to do something, often requiring acceptance to become binding.
• Promise: A declaration of intention to do something, though a pollicitation specifically emphasizes the lack of acceptance.
• Proposal: A suggested plan or offer, often used in legal contexts.

Related Idioms

• "To remain a pollicitation": To stay as an unaccepted promise.

  • The donation remained a pollicitation until the charity formally accepted it. (The promise was not yet binding.)

• "Pollicitation without acceptance": A formal legal phrase describing an incomplete contract.

  • The judge noted that the agreement was a pollicitation without acceptance, and thus unenforceable. (A contract that was never finalized.)