statute
STAT-choot · noun
Origin
Statute comes from Middle English statut, borrowed from Old French statut, from Late Latin statutum, meaning "a statute." That in turn is the neuter form of statutus, the past participle of Latin statuō, "to set up, establish."
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
The word has stayed remarkably close to its roots: from the start it named something formally set up or established, and that's still exactly what a statute is — a law fixed in place.
Related words
It traces back to the Latin verb statuō, "to set up, establish."