Usage
Us´age
USAGE. Long and uniform practice. In its most extensive meaning this term
includes custom and prescription, though it differs from them in a narrower
sense, it is applied to the habits, modes, and course of dealing which are
observed in trade generally, as to all mercantile transactions, or to some
particular branches of trade.
2. Usage of trade does not require to be immemorial to establish it; if
it be known, certain, uniform, reasonable, and not contrary to law, it is
sufficient. But evidence of a few instances that such a thing has been done
does not establish a usage. 3 Watts, 178; 3 Wash. C. C. R. 150; 1 Gallis.
443; 5 Binn. 287; 9 Pick. 426; 4 B. & Ald. 210; 7 Pet. 1; 2 Wash. C. C. R.
7.
3. The usages of trade afford ground upon which a proper construction
may be given to contracts. By their aid the indeterminate intention of
parties and the nature and extent of their contracts arising from mere
implications or presumptions, and act of an equivocal character may be
ascertained; and the meaning of words and doubtful expressions may become
known. 2 Mete. 65; 2 Sumn. 569; 2 G. & J. 136; 13 Pick. 182; Story on Ag.
Sec. 77; 2 Kent, Com. 662, 3d ed.; 5 Wheat. 326; 2 Car. & P. 525; 3 B. &
Ald. 728; Park. on Ins. 30; 1 Marsh. Ins. 186, n. 20; 1 Caines, 45 Gilp.
356, 486; 1 Edw. Ch. R. 146; 1 N. & M. 519; 15 Mass. 433; 1 Rill, R. 270;
Wright, R. 573; Pet. C. C. R. 230; 5 Hamm. 436 6 Pet. 715; 2 Pet. 148; 6
Porter, 123 1 Hall, 612; 9 Mass. 155; 9 Wheat. 582 11 Wheat. 430; 1 Pet. 25,
89.
4. Courts will not readily adopt these usages, because they are not
unfrequently founded in mistake. 2 Sumn. 377. See 3 Chitt. Pr. 55; Story,
Confl. of Laws, Sec. 270; 1 Dall. 178; Vaugh. 169, 383; Bouv. Inst. Index,
h.t.
acceptance,
acceptation,
acception,
active use,
adjectival phrase,
antonym,
appliance,
application,
articulation,
automatism,
bad habit,
bon ton,
care,
ceremony,
characteristic,
choice,
choice of words,
clause,
composition,
conformity,
construction,
consuetude,
consumption,
convenance,
convention,
creature of habit,
custodianship,
dialect,
diction,
employ,
employment,
established way,
etiquette,
exercise,
exertion,
expression,
fashion,
folkway,
force of habit,
form,
formality,
formulation,
free form,
good use,
grammar,
guidance,
guiding,
habit,
habit pattern,
habitude,
handling,
hard usage,
hard use,
headed group,
homograph,
homonym,
homophone,
idiom,
idiotism,
ill use,
language,
langue,
lead,
lexeme,
lingo,
lingua,
linguistic form,
locution,
logos,
management,
manipulation,
manner,
manner of speaking,
manners,
means of dealing,
metonym,
minimum free form,
misuse,
monosyllable,
mores,
noun phrase,
observance,
operation,
paragraph,
parlance,
parole,
pattern,
peculiar expression,
peculiarity,
period,
personal usage,
phrasal idiom,
phrase,
phraseology,
phrasing,
polysyllable,
praxis,
preference,
prescription,
procedure,
proceeding,
process,
proper thing,
received meaning,
rhetoric,
ritual,
rough usage,
routine,
second nature,
sentence,
set phrase,
social convention,
speech,
standard behavior,
standard phrase,
standard usage,
standing custom,
stereotype,
stereotyped behavior,
stewardship,
syllable,
synonym,
syntactic structure,
talk,
term,
time-honored practice,
tongue,
tradition,
trick,
turn of expression,
turn of phrase,
use of words,
using up,
usus loquendi,
utterance,
verb complex,
verb phrase,
verbalism,
verbiage,
verbum,
vocable,
way,
way of speaking,
what is done,
wont,
wonting,
word,
word-group,
wordage,
wording,
wrong use