In the civil law. Contracts having a proper or peculiar name and form, and which were divided into four kinds, expressive of the ways in which they were ‘formed, viz.: (1) Real, which arose em re, from something done; (2) verbal, ex verbis, from something said; (3) literal, ex Uteris, from something written; and (4) consensual, ex consensu, from something agreed to. Calvin.