mortmain

English

WOTD – 15 June 2009

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman mortmayn, morte meyn, from Old French mortes meins, after Late Latin phrase mortua manus. See Latin mortuus (“dead”) + manus (“hand”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːt.meɪn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔɹt.meɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

mortmain (usually uncountable, plural mortmains)

1. (law) The perpetual, inalienable possession of lands by a corporation or non-personal entity such as a church.
   • 1824, Charter of Incorporation of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,

     [W]e do hereby grant our especial license and authority unto all and every person […] to grant sell alien and convey in mortmain unto and to the use of the said Society and their successors […]

   • 1900, Frederic William Maitland, “The Corporation Sole”, in Law Quarterly Review, volume 16:

     Though in truth it was the law of mortmain […] which originally sent the founders of chantries to seek the king's licence […]

2. (literary) A strong and inalienable possession.
   • 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches:

     […] ; and some part of that influence [of the government], which would otherwise have been possessed as in a sort of mortmain and unalienable domain, returned again to the great ocean from whence it arose, […]

Translations

inalienable possession of lands

• Czech: nezcizitelný (cs) pozemek (cs) m
• Finnish: pysyvä omistus
• French: mainmorte (fr) f
• Italian: manomorta f
• Polish: martwa ręka f
• Serbo-Croatian: метох m

See also

• Statutes of Mortmain

Anagrams

• marmiton