Today's word is jurisprudence, spelled J-U-R-I-S-P-R-U-D-E-N-C-E.
Jurisprudence is a noun.
It's a formal word that typically refers to the science or philosophy of law,
or to a system or body of law.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Rolling Stone by Andy Green.
The nine justices follow our national debate as close as any political pundit,
and it shapes their jurisprudence in countless ways.
The English jurist Sir Edward Koch welcomed new words into English with his farewell to fellow jurist Sir Thomas Littleton with these words,
For a farewell to our jurisprudence, I wish unto him the gladsome light of jurisprudence."
In 1628, his word jurisprudence meant knowledge of or skill in law,
a now archaic sense that reflects the meaning of the word's root.
jurisprudence goes back to the Latin phrase prudencia juries, literally meaning skill in law,
from which came the late Latin formation juris prudencia, and subsequently the English word.
The noun jurisprudent means one skilled in law, in other words, a jurist or a judge.
There's also jurisprud, a somewhat rare 20th century back formation created from jurisprudence,
with influence from the word prude.
It means one who makes a showy display of jurisprudential learning.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.