Non compos mentis

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non compos mentis

(nahn calm-pose meant-is) adj. referring to someone who is insane, or not mentally competent to conduct one's affairs. (See: compos mentis, competent)

Copyright © 1981-2005 by Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. All Right reserved.

NON COMPOS MENTIS, persons. These words signify not of sound mind, memory, or understanding. This is a generic term, and includes all the species of madness, whether it arise from, 1, idiocy; 2, sickness 3, lunacy or 4, drunkenness. Co. Litt. 247; 4 Co. 124; 1 Phillim. R. 100; 4 Com. Dig. 613; 5 Com. Dig. 186; Shelf. on Lunatics, 1; and the articles Idiocy; Lunacy.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
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There is a tangled semantic web of words such as 'idiot', 'lunatic', fatuus, stultus, mente captus, non compos mentis, lucida intervalla, that is not resolved by appeals to the written record.
The Lexical Prison: Impairment and Confinement in Medieval and Early Modern England
Point by point and term by term, he patiently tests whether general statements of principle found in tracts such as Henry Swinburne's A Brief Treatise of Teastaments and Last Wills (1590) and John Brydall's Non Compos Mentis (1700) were applied and honored in practice.
Lloyd Bonfield. Devising, Dying and Dispute: Probate Litigation in Early Modern England
And, in a scenario that mirrors Houston's purported break with Crawford, my lover relegated our romance to the realm of non compos mentis (not being of sound mind).
An affair to remember

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