DORSUM

dorsum (dor-s<<schwa>>m). [Latin] Hist. The back. • This term usu. appeared as part of the

phrase in dorso to indicate that an instrument had been signed  on the back. In dorso recordi, for

example, meant “on the back of the record.”

“In the first place then the payee, or person to whom or whose order such bill of exchange or

promissory note is payable, may by endorsement, or writing his name in dorso or on the back of it,

assign  over  his  whole  property  to  the  bearer,  or  else  to  another  person  by  name  ….”  2  William

Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 468 (1766). [Blacks Law 8th]