Though few of us speak or even readLatinin the twenty-first century , " caveat vendee " is a musical phrase you may have heard and even used . It comes from the Latin verb " caveo , " which according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary means " to be on one ’s guard , take care ; mind of , " and " empor , " which have in mind " vendee " or " purchaser . " So we could say " buyer take maintenance , " but that really does n’t have the same ring , does it ?
Though the spoken communication is more than two centuries one-time , the phrase " caveat vendee " is not . Itsfirst sleep together usewas in a book on beast husbandry by John Fitzherbert print in 1523 :
What Fitzherbert was say here was that if a horse is obviously unfounded and kept , then you would know not to grease one’s palms that horse . But if he ’s tame and has been bait , then any other flaws the horse might have are up to the emptor to ascertain . It ’s not up to the seller to tell the buyer if he has a lame leg or bad dentition ; it ’s up to the buyer to apply his eyes and hand to find these thing out for himself . The risk is entirely on the vendee ’s shoulder joint .
Fitzherbert belike rendered the phrase " buyer beware " into Latin to make it sound more official and legal - like . And it does . We still utilise " caveat emptor " in ourmodern financial laws . But theRomanswho speak Latin — and who had been beat about a thousand years — did not have a conception of this kind of relationship between vendee and vendor .
Onepossible reasonfor this is that an ancient Romanist buyer would have known who they were buy from . They would likely have been from the same community , and so would have known about the horse , or the realm or whatever was being sell . By the 16th century , middlemen , shop owners and sales agent were firmly in place , so buyers had to be vigilant . And now , when we ’re corrupt online from JohnQ616398 , it ’s more crucial than ever to know who is taking the risk in any transaction .
There are some protections for buyers , chief among them being awarranty . There is no style for a modern purchaser to possibly bang all the thing that could go wrongly in , say , a new car . There ’s not even a manner for the sales rep at the dealership to know . So warranties and other consumer protections are in place to help vendee make the most informed decisions possible when you ca n’t eff every job in procession .
