Earnest

Earnest (in Scotland, ARLES) is a sum of money given in token that the parties to a bargain are in earnest (though 'earnest' in this sense is etymologically distinct), and mean their agreement to be binding. The contracts in which earnest is most frequently given are sale and service. Earnest is not the same as part payment; it is something given 'to bind the bargain;' whereas it is plain that there can be no part payment until the bargain is concluded. It is also necessary to distinguish between 'dead earnest'—i.e. some small gift or payment made by way of evidence of the bargain, and the payment of a sum to be deducted from the price if the bargain is completed, to be forfeited by the purchaser if he fails to complete. For the English law on this subject, see Benjamin on Sale; for the Scotch law, Erskine's Institutes. The term 'earnest' is sometimes used to include the symbolical acts of hand-shaking, thumb-licking, &c., by which, in various countries, consent to a bargain is or has been signified.