Prima facie Prima facie Prima facie (; ) is a Latin expression meaning "on its first encounter" or "at first sight". The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance", from the feminine forms of "primus" ("first") and "facies" ("face"), both in the ablative case. In modern, colloquial and conversational English, a common translation would be "on the face of it". The term "prima facie" is used in modern legal English (including both civil law and criminal law) to signify that upon initial examination, sufficient corroborating evidence appears to exist to support a case. In common law jurisdictions, "prima
Catholic (term) "catholic" entered many other languages, becoming the base for the creation of various theological terms such as "catholicism" and "catholicity" (Late Latin "catholicismus", "catholicitas"). The term "catholicism" is the English form of Late Latin "catholicismus", an abstract noun based on the adjective "catholic". The Modern Greek equivalent ("") is back-formed and usually refers to the Catholic Church. The terms "catholic", "catholicism" and "catholicity" is closely related to the use of the term "Catholic Church". (See Catholic Church (disambiguation) for more uses.) The earliest evidence of the use of that term is the "Letter to the Smyrnaeans" that Ignatius of Antioch