Civil Law. Also 7 -at. [ad. L. stelliōnātus (u stem), f. stelliōn-em, a fraudulent person, perh. a transf. use of stelliōn-em a kind of lizard (see STELLION). See -ATE1.] (See quot. 1754.)
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 64. This Court of Star-chamber … discerneth also principally of foure kinds of Causes; Forces, Frauds, Crimes various of Stellionate, and the Inchoations or middle Acts towards Crimes Capitall, or hainous, not actually committed.
1637. Bastwick, Litany, I. 13. As if I were guilty of crimes of stellionate or maluersation.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., I. xxviii. § 1 (1699), 144. Legislators were forced to invent this general name of Stellionat; under which they might range all Cheats, and thence sprung that Maxime.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 519. The crime of stellionate … includes every fraud which is not distinguished by a special name; but is chiefly applied to conveyances of the same numerical right, granted by the proprietor to different disponees.
1861. Two Cosmos, III. iii. I. 300. ‘Art and part stealing an heiress, and for aught I see stellionate and stouthrieff!’ said he.
Hence † Stellionated a. Obs. rare–1, fraudulent.
1672. G. Thomson, Lett. to H. Stubbe, 25. To discover their Stelionated and counterfeit Devices, in making the World believe, that they are the onely true Chymists.
