Pignori acceptum

See Bailment. PI GN 0 R IS CAPTIO (Lat.). In Roman Law. The "name given to one of the legis actiones of the Roman law. It consisted chiefly in the taking of a pledge, and was, in fact, a mode of execution. It was confined to special cases determined by positive law or by custom, such as taxes, duties, rents, etc., and is comparable in some respects to distress at common law. The proceeding took place in the presence of a pnetor. PIGNU$ (Lat.). In Civil Law. Pledge, or pawn. The contract of pledge. The right in the thing pledged. “It is derived,” says Gaius, “from pugnum, the fist, because what is delivered in pledge is delivered in hand.” Dig. 50. 1G. 238. 2. This is one of several instances of the failure of the Roman jurists when they attempted etymological explanations of words. The elements of pignus (pig) are contained in the word pan(g)o and its cognate forms. See Smith, Diet. Gr. & Rom. Antiq. Though pledge is distinguished from mortgage ( hypotheca ), as being something delivered in hand, while mortgage is good without possession, yet a pledge ( pignus ) may also be good without possession. Domat, Civ. Law b. iii. tit 1, § 5; Calvinus, Lex. Pignus is properly applied to movables, hypotheca to immovables; but the distinction is not always preserved. Id,