impropriate

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin impropriātus, past participle of impropriāre (“to take as one's own, appropriate”), from Latin in- + proprius (“one's own”).

Verb

impropriate (third-person singular simple present impropriates, present participle impropriating, simple past and past participle impropriated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To appropriate for private use.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     And for the Pardon of the rest, that had stood against the King; the King, upon a second advice, thought it not fit it should pass by Parliament, the better (being matter of Grace) to impropriate the Thanks to himself […]

2. (transitive) In ecclesiastical law, to place (ecclesiastical property) under control or management of a layperson.

Derived terms

• impropriator

Adjective

impropriate (not comparable)

1. Of ecclesiastical property: placed under the control or management of a layperson.
   • 1704, Henry Spelman, “An Account of the Worth of This Treatise, Taken Out of the Epistle to Sir Henry Spelman’s History of Tythes”, in De Non Temerandis Ecclesiis, Churches Not to Be Violated. A Tract of the Rights and Respects Due unto Churches. […], 6th edition, London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […]; republished in Two Tracts […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], 1704, →OCLC:

     Mrs. Ellen Gulſton, Relict of Theodore Gulſton, Doctor of Phyſick, a very Learned Man, being poſſeſſed of the Impropriate Parſonage of Bardvvell in Suffolk, did firſt procure from the King leave to annex the ſame to the Vicarage, and to make it Preſentative; and having formerly the Donation of the Vicarage, ſhe gave them both thus annexed freely to St. John’s College in Oxon: Expreſſing many Godly Reaſons in a pious Letter of her Grant, to advance the Glory of God to her Povver, &c.