A written receipt or document proving that a debt has been paid off or an obligation has been fulfilled.
From Old French aquitance, derived from aquitier (to settle, pay). Medieval commerce required such documents as proof of payment, and the term remained in legal use even as its primary context shifted from debts to criminal charges.
Before modern banking systems, acquittance documents were crucial for merchants and common people—they're the ancestors of today's receipts and legal discharge papers, showing how the need for proof of payment is ancient.
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