messuage

From Anglo-Norman mesuage, probably from Late Latin messuagium, probably ultimately from Latin mansio or mansus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛswɪd͡ʒ/

messuage (plural messuages)

1. (chiefly law) A plot of land as the site for a house; later, a residential building taken together with its outbuildings and assigned land.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I:

     Dying intestate, Juan was sole heir / To a chancery suit, and messuages, and lands [...].

   • 1840 June 8, C[harles] Poulett Thomson, “An Ordinance to incorporate the Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal; to confirm their title to the Fief and Seigniory of the Island of Montreal, the Fief and Seigniory of the Lake of the Two Mountains, and the Fief and Seigniory of Saint Sulpice, in this Province; to provide for the gradual Extinction of Seignioral Rights and Dues within the Seigniorial Limits of the said Fiefs and Seigniories; and for other Purposes [No. 164 of 1840]”, in Copy of Ordinances Passed by the Governor and Special Council of Lower Canada, in the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (Accounts and Papers. United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons; 1841, session 1), volume XV, published 3 February 1841, OCLC 926570376, pages 151–152:

     And be it further ordained and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the Right and Title of the said Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal, in and to all and singular the said Fiefs and Seigniories of the Island of Montreal, of the Lake of the Two Mountains, and of Saint Sulpice, and their several Dependencies, and in and to all Seigniorial and Feudal Rights, Privileges, Dues, and Duties arising out of and from the same, and in and to all and every the Domains, Lands, Reservations, Buildings, Messuages, Tenements, and Hereditaments within the said several Fiefs and Seigniories now held and possessed by them as Proprietors thereof, […] shall be and they are hereby confirmed and declared good, valid, and effectual in the Law; […]

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     Matthias turned his lonely house into a mart where furniture, plate and titledeeds to fields and messuages could be brought, evaluated, and transferred to the hands of the primal twelve as administrators.