adv. and sb. [a. L. alias ‘at another time, otherwise’; adopted in Eng. chiefly in the latter sense.]
ǁ A. adv. Otherwise (called or named). Now written in italics.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scotl., II. 354. Callit Gillelmus alias Gilmoure.
1607. Shaks., Coriol., II. i. 48. Violent testie Magistrates (alias Fooles).
1709. Lond. Gaz., mmmmdlxi/4. The Parish of Stepncy, alias Stebonheath.
1840. Hood, Up Rhine, 202. Louisa Brachman, alias Sappho … threw herself from a gallery, two stories high.
B. sb. (with pl. aliases.)
1. Another name, an assumed name.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1614), 147. An Aliàs or double name cannot preiudice the honest.
1831. Edin. Rev., LIII. 364. He has been assuming various aliases.
1861. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 92. The monk who was sometimes called Harrison and sometimes went by the alias of Johnson.
† 2. Law. A second or further writ issued after a first had failed of its effect, so called from the words Sicut alias præcipimus (as we on another occasion command) which occurred in it. Obs.
1672. Manley, Interpr., Alias Vide Capias alias.
1714. Sir W. Scroggs, Pract. Courts (ed. 3), 173. Then the Plaintiff may have an Alias.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 135. To delay his obedience to the first writ, and … wait till a second and a third, called an alias and a pluries, were issued.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. Capias, An alias writ … to the same effect as the former.
