noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A witness.
2. 2
   The witnessing or concluding clause, duty attached; said of a writ, deed, etc.

Etymology

So called from Latin teste, ablative of testis (“a witness”), because this was formerly the initial word in the clause.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.