curtilage
nounUK /ˈkɜːtɪlɪd͡ʒ/ · US /ˈkɜɹtəlɪd͡ʒ/
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English courtelage, curtilage, curtylage (“vegetable garden; croft; gardening, farming”), from Anglo-Norman curtilage, from Old French cortillage, courtillage (modern French courtillage (obsolete); compare Medieval Latin cortilagium, curtilagium), from cortil, cortill (“small court, garth”) + -age (suffix denoting a relationship with a place). Cortil, cortill are derived from cort, curt (“court of a monarch”) + -il (suffix forming place names); and cort, curt from Latin cōrtem, the accusative singular form of cōrs, a variant of cohors (“court; enclosure; farmyard; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by; near; with”) + *ǵʰer- (“to enclose”).
Law, Property A small piece of land, such as a garth or yard with the buildings and structures on it, immediately surrounding a dwelling house and legally regarded as part of its property; originally, such areas were enclosed by a fence or wall.
- Coordinate term: messuage
- [T]he King grants them, that they may buy houſes and curtelages in the Cities or Burroughs vvhere they reſide, ſo as they hold them in chief of the King; ſaving to the Lords the Services due and accuſtomed.1656, William Prynne, A Short Demurrer to the Jewes Long Discontinued Remitter into England. […], London: […] Edward Thomas […], →OCLC, page 36:
4 more examples
- I give to my kinsman Alexander Trevethan, John Nicholls of Trereife, Esq., George Veale of Trevailer, Gent., Thomas Rowe, Clerk, the Vicar of Madron, and to the succeeding Vicar and Vicars, Abraham Chirgwin and Thomas Baynard both of Madron, yeomen, My little Tenement in Leriggon, […] and the House and Courtledge now in the possession of Cicely Benver, Widow for her life […] and all that House, Courtledge and Cellar, Granted by Lease to George Edmonds, and that Cellar and Courtledge now in the possession of Daniel Hawkey, Merchant, By Grant for 99 years, […]1710 July 20 (date written; Gregorian calendar), George Daniell, “Abstract of the Will of George Daniell, the Founder of the Madron School, from the MSS. of the Late George C. Boase”, in John S. Amery, Maxwell Adams, E. Windeatt, H Tapley-Soper, editors, Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries: A Quarterly Journal Devoted to Local History, Biography and Antiquities of the Counties of Devon and Cornwall, volume VI, Exeter, Devon: James G. Commin, published 1911, →OCLC, item 62, pages 74–75:
- [I]f the barn, ſtable, or vvarehouſe be parcel of the manſionhouſe, though not under the ſame roof or contiguous, a burglary may be committed therein; for the capital houſe protects and privileges all it's branches and appurtenants, if vvithin the curtilage or homeſtall.1769, William Blackstone, “Of Offences against the Habitations of Individuals”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 225:
- On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and villanous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw-bands; and at the back a rambling courtledge of barns and walls, around which pigs and bare-foot children grunted in loving communion of dirt.1855, Charles Kingsley, “How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 166:
- The house, a square, two-storyed building of greystone, roofed with heavy slates, was guarded in front by a small courtlage, the wall of which blocked all view from the lower rooms. […] A white gate opened on the courtlage, and the path from this to the front door was marked out by slabs of blue slate, accurately laid in line.1892, Q [pseudonym; Arthur Quiller-Couch], “I Saw Three Ships. Chapter II. The Second Ship.”, in I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter’s Tales, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 35:
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