"Demur" is not exclusively a legal term. It simply means to object, or to express reservations, and is a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon (actually, French) that is found in contemporary usage with some frequency. Nor is demurrer a legal term, per se, though in that form it seems almost to have been completely pre-emted by the judicial system.
And now, I suspect, there are several hundred readers of this forum who know far more than they ever wanted to know, or needed to know, about demurrers.
I did, though, want to stress that "demur" is not the same as "demure." The difference can be clearly seen when one pairs them in a sentence, as in "When you say that Brenda/TX is not at all coy, I have to demur; she is the most demure and modest of women, as are all of the feminine gender from Texas." |
