Real estate
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Real estate is "property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more generally) buildings or housing in general.
Etymology
real; from French royale, from Latin regalis, royal, regal, from combining form reg- (nominative rex), king, + adjective suffix -alis
estate; from Latin status, condition, state
In spite of the name, real estate has no connection with the concept of reality. It derives instead from the feudal principle that in a monarchy, all land was considered the property of the king. Thus originally the term real estate was equivalent to "royal estate", real originating from the French royale, as it was the French-speaking Normans who introduced feudalism to England in the 11th century and thus the English language; cognate to Spanish real.
See also