Law and Order
Goods and Chattels
Last Will and Testament
Acknowledge and Confess
Breaking and Entering
Fit and Proper
Keep and Maintain
Pardon and Forgive
Bind and Obligate
Deem and Consider
Give and Grant
Indemnify and Hold Harmless
Hide and Conceal
Lewd and Lascivious
Free and Clear
Sale and Transfer
Land and Tenements
True and Correct
Make and Enter Into
Every Kind and Nature
Give, Devise, and Bequeath
Right, Title, and Interest
These were not intended to convey subtle differences that would either close or create loopholes. It was just an interior gloss of the meaning of a word. In 1200 most people in England spoke English, what law that was written down was in Latin, and French was coming up on both sides. What is a lawyer or lawgiver to do? Make sure that everyone understands what you mean by writing it in both languages. These are not in any way contrasts, they are synonyms. Or at any rate, they were originally.
Not only in law. Wrack and Ruin; Love and Affection; Soft and Gentle; Kind and Generous; Bells and Whistles; Greetings and Salutations, writers and poets were doing the same thing. We see it in Biblical Wisdom literature from an entirely different culture. An obedient son is a joy to his mother and an honor to his father. Preachers have gotten themselves wound into knots by trying to explain why it's significant that the mother feels joy and the father is honored. Not really. It's a poetic repetition.
I don't know if lawyers tried to create divisions between any of these concepts in the service of getting a favorable ruling for their clients, or that any of these ideas have eventually become distinct in the law. I did break the window, your honor, but I never entered the premises. I just reached in and grabbed the sack. I have at least four attorneys who regularly read the blog who might give us even more fascinating bits about one or more of these. But at the beginning, they were just the same concept in another language in use, to make sure everyone was on the same page.
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