Ballentine’s Law Dictionary

This Dictionary had 3 editions:

• The 1916 Edition
• The 1948 Edition
• The 1969 Edition

Third Edition (1969)

The book’s third edition (1969) has the subtitle “A Law Dictionary withouth Pronunciations”. It was published by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing,. Albany, New York

Preface of the 1916 Edition

Of the law dictionaries in current use, some are combinations of the dictionary and of the encyclopedia. That is, they contain much historical and explanatory matter which is outside of the proper sphere of a dictionary and at the same time they are too brief in respect to their historical and explanatory data to be relied upon as exhaustive. Others of these dictionaries, while confined within proper dictionary limits, jdo not define a sufficient number of terms to be of practical use, the result being that one must often consult two or more of them in order to find any definition for an ordinary word or term.
The main effort in this work has been directed at the omis¬sion of whatever belongs exclusively in an encyclopedia and the inclusion of as many words, terms and phrases as possible which are peculiar to the law or which have meanings which are peculiar to the law.
It is the hope of the writer that the profession will find in the book an accessible, convenient and helpful desk companion.

San Francisco, January 1, 1916.
James A. Ballentine