[a. L. fīat ‘let it be done,’ ‘let there be made,’ 3rd pers. sing. pres. subj. of fierī, used as passive of facĕre to do, make.]
1. orig. The word ‘fiat’ itself, or a formula containing it, by which a competent authority gave his sanction to a proposed arrangement, to the performance of a request, etc. Hence, an authoritative sanction, an authorization, † Fiat in bankruptcy: see quot. 1848.
[Compare the following examples in med.L.: Ita fiat ut ego Chlodoveus volui (Grant by Clovis, in Mabillon, De Re Diplomatica, VI. li. (1681), 463). Signaturæ autem Papales expediuntur ab ipsa sanctitate per Fiat simplex, vel per Fiat geminatum, vel per Fiat proprio motu, vel per Fiat, ut petitur (Compend. Benefic. Expos., in Du Cange, s.v.).]
1636. Sanderson, Serm., II. 60. Unless the Lord be pleased to set His fiat unto it, and to confirm it with His royal assent.
1647. N. Bacon, Discourse of the Laws & Government of England, I. Conclusion (1682), 201. Nothing can be concluded without the King’s fiat, which regularly should follow upon the premisses, according to the major vote; but more ordinarily suiteth with that which best suiteth with his pleasure.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, I. § 101. 90. That all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom … be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only, with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury.
1768. Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury, I. 156. Mr. Wilkes not being in custody, the Attorney-General has refused his fiat to the writ of error, which he wishes to sue out, because that writ would secure to him the situation in which it found him; that is, if he were at liberty, or in custody, when the writ was taken out, he would remain so until the litigation upon it was determined.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, IV. ix. I tell thee I have the fiat of the prætor.
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., Fiat in Bankruptcy, the authority of the Lord Chancellor to a commissioner of bankrupts, authorising him to proceed in the bankruptcy of a trader mentioned therein.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. XVI. i. 132. The decisive fiat was given: ‘Yes; start on it, in God’s name!’
b. gen. An authoritative pronouncement, decree, command, order.
a. 1750. A. Hill, Wedding Day, Wks. 1753, III. 173.
| Our hands, at length, th’ unchanging fiat bound, | |
| And our glad souls sprung out, to meet the found. |
1810. Shelley, Zastrozzi, xvii. Still Zastrozzi stood unmoved, and fearlessly awaited the fiat of his destiny.
1874. Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England (1875), II. xvii. 570. To determine by the fiat of the king alone the course of national policy.
1883. J. Hawthorne, Dust, I. 44. His presence and bearing were lofty and superb; and he was one of those whose fiat in matters of fashion was law.
2. With reference to ‘Fiat lux’ (let there be light) Gen. i. 3 in the Vulgate: A command having for its object the creation, formation, or construction of something.
a. 1631. Donne, The Storme, 71.
| So that we (except God say | |
| Another ‘Fiat’) shall haue noe more day. |
1710. Berkeley, Princ. Hum. Knowl., I. § 60. If it be a Spirit that immediately produces every Effect by a Fiat, or Act of his Will, we must think all that is fine and artificial in the Works, whether of Man or Nature, to be made in vain.
1779. T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 215. His eye immediately pervaded the whole State, it was reduced at once to a regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into movement and animation by the fiat of a comprehensive mind.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. i. 6. Was space furnished at once, by the fiat of Omnipotence, with these burning orbs?
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., III. xv. 358. St. Petersburg, like Constantinople and Alexandria, sprang into existence by the fiat of royal will.
3. attrib., as fiat-power; fiat-money, U.S. money (such as an inconvertible paper currency) which is made legal tender by a ‘fiat’ of the government, without having an intrinsic or promissory value equal to its nominal value.
1879. J. A. Garfield, in E. Kirke, Life (1880), 30/3. We shall still hear echoes of the old conflict, such as ‘the barbarism and cowardice of gold and silver,’ and the virtues of ‘fiat-money.’
1887. A. Johnston, The First Century of the Constitution, in New Princeton Rev. IV. 176. The verdict of approval, however, has usually taken a form which implies a certain fiat power in the Convention.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. III. lvi. 369, note. Greenbacks, or so-called ‘fiat money.’
