In legal terminology, deceit or fraud; a Latin legal term meaning intentional wrongdoing or criminal deception.
From Latin 'dolus' (deceit, guile, fraud), a term preserved in English legal vocabulary through the tradition of using Latin phrases in law. It appears in phrases like 'dolus malus' (bad faith).
Legal Latin is preserved like amber—terms like 'dolus' haven't changed spelling or meaning in centuries because lawyers deliberately maintain Latin terminology to keep legal concepts consistent across time and countries, making it possible for modern lawyers to read cases from the 1700s.
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