“But where a defendant absconds, and the plaintiff would proceed to an outlawry against him, an original writ must then be sued out regularly, and after that a capias. And if the sheriff cannot find the defendant upon the first writ … there issues out an alias writ, and after that a pluries, to the same effect as the former: only after these words ‘we command you,’ this clause is inserted, ‘as we have formerly,’ or, ‘as we have often commanded you;’ ‘sicut alias’ ….” 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 283 (1768).
sicut alias
sicut alias (sI-k[schwa]t ay-lee-[schwa]s), n. [Latin “as at another time”] Hist. A second writ issued when the first one was not executed.
