Report No. 152
5.2. Concept of arrest.-
In common parlance, one understands, by the word "arrest," the deprivation of personal liberty and we take it that a person is arrested when his freedom of movement is circumscribed at the will of the person arresting him. Origin of the word "arrest" is interesting. The Latin verb restare meant "stand back, remain behind" or "stop" (it is the source of English rest in the sense "remainder"). The compound verb arrestare„formed in post-classifical times from the prefix ad and restare, had a causative function: "cause to remain behind or stop," hence "capture, seize". These meanings were carried over, via Old French arester into English. (Bloomsbury, Didctionary of Word origins, 1992, p. 38.)
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