What a great legal word! In contract law, students follow a process that starts with a preliminary suggestion (a so-called "invitation to treat", followed by an offer and finally acceptance. If other preconditions are satisfied, the result is a legally enforceable promise: a contract. What was missing was a word for an offer that had been communicated but not yet accepted.

How quickly "pollicitation" insinuates itself into the vocabulary of contract law specialists will be a measure of the popularity of the Wordsmith list in the profession!


Murray Stone, Westerose, Alberta