Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Forum \Fo"rum\, n.; pl. E. {Forums}, L. {Fora}. [L.; akin to
   foris, foras, out of doors. See {Foreign}.]
   1. A market place or public place in Rome, where causes were
      judicially tried, and orations delivered to the people.

   2. A tribunal; a court; an assembly empowered to hear and
      decide causes.

            He [Lord Camden] was . . . more eminent in the
            senate than in the forum.             --Brougham.