mort d'ancestor

English

Alternative forms

• mortdancester

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman mordauncestre, from Old French mort d'ancestre (“death of ancestor”).

Noun

mort d'ancestor (uncountable)

1. (law, obsolete) A case or writ relating to the recovery of an inherited estate that has been taken or occupied by another party following the death of a relative.
   • 1768, William Blackstone, chapter 10, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 185:

     If the abatement happened upon the death of the demandant’s father or mother, brother or sister, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, the remedy is by an assize of mort d’ancestor, or the death of one’s ancestor.