fee tail

noun

fee tail

noun

Etymology From Middle English fee taille, fetayll, from Anglo-Norman fee tailé, from Medieval Latin foedum talliātum.

1

Law An estate in land in common law in which the land is inherited, but cannot be sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the owner, but which passes by operation of law to the owner's heirs upon his death.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.