This week's theme
Terms from law

This week's words
lex loci
hereditament
suborn
mens rea
attorn

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(her-i-DIT-uh-ment)

MEANING:

noun: Inheritable property.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin hereditare (to inherit), from heres (heir). Earliest documented use: 1461.

NOTES:

Hereditament is of two kinds: corporeal and incorporeal. If your grandfather willed you his collection of Superman comics, that would be corporeal hereditament. If he awarded you only the right to read those comics from time to time, it'd be incorporeal hereditament.

USAGE:

"The Panadura Recreation Club was established seventy years ago on a hereditament of land."
Indoor Badminton Court; Ceylon Daily News (Sri Lanka); Sep 7, 2002.

"Sir, having no disease, nor any taint
Nor old hereditament of sin or shame."
Sidney Lanier; Poems of Sidney Lanier; 1916.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: