What is "brocard"

Brocard \Broc"ard\, n. [Perh. fr. Brocardica, Brocardicorum opus, a collection of ecclesiastical canons by Burkhard, Bishop of Worms, called, by the Italians and French, Brocard.] An elementary principle or maximum; a short, proverbial rule, in law, ethics, or metaphysics.

The legal brocard, ``Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus,'' is a rule not more applicable to other witness than to consciousness.
--Sir W. Hamilton.

n. (context legal English) A legal principle usually expressed in Latin, traditionally used to concisely express a wider legal concept or rule.

A brocard is a legal principle expressed in Latin (and often derived from past legal authorities or Roman Law), which is traditionally used to express concisely a wider legal concept or rule. The name comes from the Latinized name of Burchard (died 1025), bishop of Worms, Germany, who compiled 20 volumes of Ecclesiastical Rules.

Brocard can refer to:

• Brocard (law)
• Henri Brocard, a nineteenth-century mathematician, and these geometrical entities he discovered:
  • Brocard points
  • Brocard triangle
  • Brocard circle
• Saint Brocard, first of the priors of the Carmelite Order according to oral tradition