caveat emptor

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a Latin legal maxim meaning let the buyer beware, establishing that the buyer assumes the risk of a purchase's quality and condition unless the seller provides an explicit warranty or is found to have fraudulently misrepresented the goods; caveat emptor was the dominant principle of contract law in English common law until the twentieth century and still applies in many private sale contexts; the phrase is used in broader discourse to warn that any transaction, agreement, or relationship carries risks that the parties entering it must assess for themselves, without assuming that the other side will proactively disclose all relevant information