BENCH (an O.E. and Eng.

See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form of a word

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• COMMON

common to

See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic

See also:

• LANGUAGES

languages, cf. Ger.

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• BANK

Bank,

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• DAN

Dan. baenk and the Eng. doublet " bank ")  , a long narrow wooden seat for several persons, with or without a back . While the chair was yet a seat of state or dignity the bench was ordinarily used by the commonalty . It is still extensively employed for other than domestic purposes, as in schools, churches and places of amusement . Bench or Banc, in law, originally was the seat occupied by judges in court; hence the term is used of a tribunal of justice itself, as the King's Bench, the Common Bench, and is now applied to judges or magistrates collectively as the " judicial bench," " bench of magistrates." The word is also applied to any seat where a number of people sit in an official capacity, or as equivalent to the dignity itself, as " the civic bench," the " bench of aldermen," the " episcopal bench," the " front bench," i.e. that reserved for the leaders of either party in the British House of Commons . King's Bench 716 (q.v.) was one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, the others being the common pleas and the ex-chequer . Under the Judicature Act 1873, the court of king's bench became the king's bench division of the High Court of Justice . The court of common pleas was sometimes called the common bench . Sittings in banc were formerly the sittings of one of the superior courts of Westminster for the hearing of motions, special cases, &c., as opposed to the nisi Arius sittings for trial of facts, where usually only a single judge presided . By the Judicature Act 1873 the business of courts sitting in banc was transferred to divisional courts . BENCH-MARK, a surveyor's mark cut in stone or some durable material, to indicate a point in a line of levels for the determination of altitudes over a given district . The name is taken from the " angle-iron " which is inserted in the horizontal incision as a " bench " or support for the levelling staff . The mark of the " broad-arrow " is generally incised with the bench-mark so that the horizontal bar passes through its apex .