Meaning & use
curtesy
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablelegal
An old legal right of a widower to keep and use his dead wife's land for life, provided they had a child born alive.
Grammar: Almost always appears as curtesy or curtesy of England, in property law.
Patterns
- curtesy in something
- tenant by the curtesy
Under old law, curtesy let a widower keep her farm for his lifetime.
The student wrote an essay on curtesy and dower.
Most states have abolished curtesy in favor of equal inheritance rules.
Common combinations
- tenant by the curtesy
- He held the land as tenant by the curtesy.
- curtesy of England
- Historians call it curtesy of England.
- abolish curtesy
- The legislature voted to abolish curtesy.
- right of curtesy
- The widower claimed his right of curtesy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- life estate
- Life estate is the general modern term for a right to property for life, while curtesy was a specific right of a husband.
- dower
- Dower is the matching right of a widow, so it is a counterpart, not a synonym.
Word family
- curtesies noun
- plural, rarely used
- courtesy noun
- polite behavior, a different but historically linked word
Commonly confused: curtesy or courtesy?
curtesy vs courtesy
Courtesy means polite behavior and is pronounced /ˈkɜːtəsi/ too, but curtesy is the narrow legal term for a widower's property right.
Practice
In law, curtesy is...
Choose one answer.
Curtesy is a technical term in property law. Good manners is the meaning of the related word courtesy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “curtesy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.