oyer

noun Law.

1. oyer and terminer.
2. a hearing in open court involving the production of some document pleaded by one party and demanded by the other, the party pleading the document being said to make profert.

noun

1. English legal history (in the 13th century) an assize
2. (formerly) the reading out loud of a document in court
3. See oyer and terminer

n.early 15c., “a hearing of causes,” from Anglo-French oyer, Old French oir, from Latin audire “to hear” (see audience). Especially in phrase oyer and terminer (early 15c., but from late 13c. in Anglo-Latin and Anglo-French), literally “a hearing and determining,” in England a court of judges of assize, in U.S. a higher criminal court.