Nolle prosequi — Latin for “to be unwilling to prosecute” — is the formal declaration by a prosecutor that they are dropping criminal charges. It is among the most consequential acts in the criminal justice system and one of the most misunderstood by defendants who receive it. What It Is Prosecutors hold broad discretion over whether to pursue criminal charges. When a prosecutor decides to abandon a case — whether because evidence is insufficient, a witness is unavailable, a plea agreement with another defendant has resolved the matter, or the case is no longer in the public interest — they file a nolle prosequi (often abbreviated nol-pros or nol.

A non-paper is an informal diplomatic document used to float ideas, test positions, or advance negotiations without committing a government to the content. It carries no official attribution and creates no formal record in the diplomatic sense. The document exists — but officially, it does not. What It Is Non-papers are the working drafts of international diplomacy. Governments use them when they want to explore whether a proposal might be acceptable to another party before making it formally.

A note verbale is a formal diplomatic communication written in the third person, unsigned, and exchanged between a foreign ministry and a diplomatic mission. Despite its name — French for “verbal note” — it is always a written document. The word “verbal” refers to its historical origin as a written summary of what was once delivered orally by a diplomat. What It Is The note verbale sits in the middle tier of diplomatic correspondence.

ORBAT — Order of Battle — is a structured accounting of a military force’s composition, organization, and disposition. It answers the essential intelligence questions: what units exist, how are they organized, where are they, and what can they do? What It Is An ORBAT is both a document and an analytical framework. At its most basic, it is a hierarchical list: army groups contain armies, armies contain corps, corps contain divisions, divisions contain brigades, brigades contain battalions, and so on.

Perihelion is the point in a planet’s (or comet’s or spacecraft’s) orbit at which it is closest to the Sun. Aphelion is the point at which it is farthest. The two terms define the extremes of an elliptical orbit, and their existence explains why Earth’s seasons are not driven by distance from the Sun. What They Are Planetary orbits are ellipses, not circles. Johannes Kepler established this in his first law of planetary motion (1609): every planet moves in an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.

A PIK loan — Payment in Kind loan — is a debt instrument where the borrower pays interest not in cash but by issuing additional debt. Instead of writing a check for interest each quarter, the borrower adds the interest to the outstanding principal balance. The lender receives more paper; the borrower preserves cash. What It Is In conventional lending, interest is paid periodically in cash. PIK flips this. The borrower’s interest obligation accumulates as additional loan principal, which itself accrues further interest in subsequent periods.

The portability election allows a surviving spouse to use any unused federal estate tax exemption from their deceased spouse’s estate, adding it to their own exemption. It is one of the most consequential and most frequently missed steps in estate administration — and its deadline is unforgiving. What It Is Each person has a federal estate tax exemption — the amount they can transfer at death free of federal estate tax.

Provenance, in archival science, refers to the origin of a body of records — specifically, the person, family, organization, or institution that created or accumulated them. It is the foundational principle of archival arrangement and description, and it is distinct from the art world’s use of the same word. What It Is The principle of provenance — known in French as respect des fonds — holds that records from different creators must be kept separate and not intermingled, even if their subject matter overlaps.

A QTIP trust — Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust — is an estate planning vehicle that provides income to a surviving spouse during their lifetime while preserving the principal for beneficiaries of the deceased spouse’s choosing. It is the primary tool for balancing marital security against inheritance control in blended families and large estates. What It Is When one spouse dies, assets passing to the surviving spouse qualify for the unlimited marital deduction — no estate tax is owed on transfers between spouses at death.

Recto and verso are the two sides of a leaf in a manuscript, book, or document. Recto is the front — the right-hand page in an open book. Verso is the back — the left-hand page. The terms are standard in bibliography, archival description, manuscript studies, and art history, and they appear constantly in catalogue entries and scholarly footnotes. What They Are In Western manuscript and book tradition, leaves (individual sheets) are numbered rather than pages.