“In the first place then the payee, or person to whom or whose order such bill of exchange or promissory note is payable, may by endorsement, or writing his name in dorso or on the back of it, assign over his whole property to the bearer, or else to another person by name ….” 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 468 (1766).
dorsum
dorsum (dor-s[schwa]m). [Latin] Hist. The back. • This term usu. appeared as part of the phrase in dorso to indicate that an instrument had been signed on the back. In dorso recordi, for example, meant “on the back of the record.”
