arraign (g silent)

t. [O. Fr. arraigner, aragnier, aregnier, aregnir, aranier, areisnier, aresner, araisnier, are is oner, araisoner, arraisonner; Prov. arrazonar; Low Lat. arrainare, arraizonare, arrationare = to addre , to call before a court, to require a prisoner to make pleadings: ad to, and ratio no = to speak; Low Lat. rationes pleadings, pl. of Cla . Lat. ratio the mode or art of thinking.] L. Law: 1. Of persons: To summon a prisoner to the bar of a court to answer a matter charged against him in an indictment. On being thus called he is required to respond to his name, or in some other way signify that he is the person whose presence is required. Then the indictment is distinctly read over to him in the vernacular tongue, after which he is asked whether or not he is guilty. He may stand mute, or confe the fact alleged, or plead to the indictment. ( Black stone : Comment., bk. iv., ch. 25.) "When the time was come, they were brought before their enemies, and arraigned ."-Bunyan: The Pilgram's Progre , pt. i. 2. Of things. To arraign a writ in a county is to fit it for trial before the justices of the circuit. II. Ordinary Language: *1. The same as ARRANGE. (Apparently an erroneous meaning founded on a wrong etymology of arraign .) "Arraign, is to put a thing in order or in its due Place; also to Indict and put a Prisoner on his Trial." -Glo og. Nova , 2nd ed. (1719). 2. To bring an accusation against, to complain of, to find fault with, to denounce; to stigmatise persons, actions, arrangements, or institutions. had been an accomplice in some of the misdeeds which he now arraigned with great force of reasoning and eloquence." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. xiii. "Wild she arraigns the eternal doom, Upbraids each sacred power." Scott : William and Helen , 22. ar-rā'ign ( g silent), s. [ARRAIGN, v.] Arraignment. Clerk of the arraigns: Clerk of the arraignments. "The clerk of the arraigns stood up in great disorder."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. v. One who arraigns. ( Cole ridge .) ar-rā'ign-ing ( g silent), pr. par. [ARRAIGN, ν.]