Etymology:
< Anglo-Norman apurtenance (12th cent. in Littré), Old French aper- and, regularly, apartenance (compare Provençal apartenensa , Italian appartenenza ) < late Latin appertinēntia , < appertinēre : see appertain v. and -ance suffix. The second vowel has varied, as a , e , o , u , but the last is now the accepted spelling. For instances assimilated to appertain , see appertainance n. Formerly often used unchanged in the plural.
1. Law and gen.
A thing that belongs to another, a ‘belonging’; a minor property,
right, or privilege, belonging to another more important, and passing in
possession with it; an appendage.
2.
A thing which naturally and fitly forms a subordinate part of, or
belongs to, a whole system; a contributory adjunct, an accessory.
3. esp. in pl. The mechanical accessories employed in any function or complex scheme; apparatus, gear. Also fig.
"Sibyl Hathaway, the indomitable Dame of Sark, had ruled the island for forty-seven years, after inheriting the title from her father, whose grandmother bought it off the Le Pelley family, which had acquired it in 1730 from creditors of the descendants of the nobleman Hélier de Carteret, to whom Elizabeth I, in 1565, first granted the fief 'with all its rights, members, liberties, and appurtenances, and all and each of its castles, fortresses, houses, buildings, structures, ruined or collapsed with age, lands, meadows, pastures, commons, wastes, woods, waters... vicarages, chapels and churches of every kind,' on the condition that he insure its continuous habitation by forty armed men."
- Lauren Collins, "Sark Spring: a feudal feud in the Channel Islands", 29 October & 5 November 2012 The New Yorker
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