They ask, “What is your address?” not “What is your home location?”

The word, address, is yet another word with an odd legal meaning. Bouvier’s law dictionary says that it means the ‘court where the plaintiff seeks his remedy‘. That’s a whole lot different from the word meaning ‘where one lives.’

I know people don’t ask me, “What is your location?” or “Where is your home?” They say, “What is your address?” Seems odd to me. Just like it’s odd when they ask, “Are you a resident?“, instead of “Where do you live?”

Here is the Bouvier’s entry for ‘address’. The abbreviation ‘Chan’ means chancery or, I believe, equity. Then we see the word ‘plead’ as in ‘pleading’. Then there’s the word ‘bill’. I’d like to know when the word ‘bill’ is used in court.

ADDRESS, chan. plead. That part of a bill which contains the appropriate and technical description of the court where the plaintiff seeks his remedy. Coop. Eq. PI. 8; Bart. Suit in Eq. 20Story, Eq. PI. 26 Van Hey. Eq. Draft. 2.

Here’s the second definition from Bouvier’s. One thing to note is that words have different meaning in different contexts. In Chancery or equity, we have the meaning above. In legislative matter, we have the meaning below. Know the context, to know the true meaning of words.

ADDRESS, legislation. In Pennsylvania it is a resolution of both, branches of the legislature, two-thirds of each house concurring, requesting the governor to remove a judge from office. The constitution of that state, art. 5, s. 2, directs that ” for any reasonable cause, which shall not be, ground for impeachment, the governor may remove any of them [the judges], on the address of two-third’s of each branch of the legislature.” The mode of removal by address is unknown to the constitution of the, United States, but it is recognized in several of the states. In some of the state constitutions the language is imperative; the governor when thus addressed shall remove; in others it is left to his discretion, he may remove. The relative proportion of each house that must join in the address, varies also in different states. In some a bare majority is sufficient; in others, two-thirds are requisite; and in others three-fourths. 1 Journ. of Law, 154.