estate

EnglishEdit

estate on Wikipedia

PronunciationEdit

IPA^(key): /ɪsˈteɪt/
Audio (US)
(file)
Rhymes: -eɪt

EtymologyEdit

From Anglo-Norman estat, from Old French estat (French: état).

NounEdit

estate (plural estates)

The collective property and liabilities of someone, especially a deceased person. [from 19^thc.]
(now rare, archaic) State; condition. [from 13^thc.]
- William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
  when I came to man's estate
- Bible, Romans xii. 16
  Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
(archaic) Status, rank. [from 13^thc.]
- Jeremy Taylor (1613–1677)
  God hath imprinted his authority in several parts, upon several estates of men.
(archaic) The condition of one's fortunes; prosperity, possessions. [from 14^thc.]
(obsolete) A "person of estate"; a nobleman or noblewoman. [14^th-17^thc.]
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xj, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVI:
  And anone came oute of a chamber to hym the fayrest lady that euer he sawe & more rycher bysene than euer he sawe Quene Gueneuer or ony other estat Lo sayd they syre Bors here is the lady vnto whome we owe alle oure seruyse / and I trowe she be the rychest lady and the fayrest of alle the world
- Bible, Mark vi. 21
  Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee.
- Walter Landor (1775-1864)
  She's a duchess, a great estate.
(historical) A major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country and formerly possessing distinct political rights (Estates of the realm). [from 14^thc.]
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p.115:
  I am afraid that some of the nobles who are campaigning for it simply want to use the Estates to cut down the King's power and increase their own.
- 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin 2012, p.202:
  The three estates of feudal lords, clergy and royal officers met in separate chambers, and exercised an advisory role.
(law) The nature and extent of a person's interest in, or ownership of, land. [from 15^thc.]
An (especially extensive) area of land, under a single ownership. [from 18^thc.]
- 2014 September 7, “Doddington's garden pyramid is a folly good show: The owners of a Lincolnshire stately home have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid [print edition: Great pyramid of Lincolnshire, 6 September 2014, p. G2]”, in The Daily Telegraph^[1], London:
  It has been a long time since new follies were springing up across the great estates of Britain. But the owners of Doddington Hall, in Lincolnshire, have brought the folly into the 21st century, by building a 30ft pyramid in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor.
The landed property owned or controlled by a government or a department of government.
(Britain, sometimes pejorative) A housing estate. [from 20^thc.]
- 2012 October 19, McDermott, Josephine, “London's new housing loses the 'dirty word'”, in BBC News^[2]:
  Professor Loretta Lees from King's College London's geography department says, "The word 'estate' has become synonymous with the term 'ghetto'. It's become a dirty word. Back in the '20s and '30s it didn't carry the same stigma."
(Britain, automotive) A station wagon; a car with a tailgate (or liftgate) and storage space to the rear of the seating which is coterminous with the passenger compartment (and often extensible into that compartment via folding or removable seating). [from 20^thc.]
(obsolete) The state; the general body politic; the common-wealth; the general interest; state affairs.
- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
  I call matters of estate not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever […] concerneth manifestly any great portion of people.