messuage

[mes-wij]

noun

Law.

1. a dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and the lands appropriated to the use of the household.

messuage

/ ˈmɛswɪdʒ /

noun

1. property law a dwelling house together with its outbuildings, curtilage, and the adjacent land appropriated to its use

Word History and Origins

Origin of messuage¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, misreading ( n taken as u ) of Old French mesnage ménage ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of messuage¹

C14: from Norman French: household, perhaps through misspelling of Old French mesnage _ménage

Example Sentences

The morning sun descended like an amber shower-bath on Blandings Castle, lighting up with a heartening glow its ivied walls, its rolling parks, its gardens, outhouses, and messuages ...

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There was a place so called in Perthshire; but then it never was occupied by people of that name,—the Bowers being an old family in Angus, whose principal messuage was Kincaldrum.

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“Yes, I; master of the houses, and lands, tenements, messuages, and all the rest of it; above all, my little struggling pet, master of you.”

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For them, my dear Jack, you must have messuages and tenements, and outhouses, townlands, and turbaries; corn, cattle, and cottages; pigs, potatoes, and peasantry.

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Wynkyn de Worde, the father of printing in England, lived in Fleet Street, at his messuage or inn known by the sign of the Falcon.

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