English
Etymology
L. mortua (�dead�) + manus (�hand�)
Noun
wikipedia
en-noun
- the possession of lands by a corporation or non-personal entity such as the Church
- figuratively a strong and inalienable possession
Quotations
1770: The influence of Government, thus divided in appearance between the Court and the leaders of parties, became in many cases an accession rather to the popular than to the royal scale; and some part of that influence, which would otherwise have been possessed as in a sort of mortmain and unalienable domain, returned again to the great ocean from whence it arose, and circulated among the people. — Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches, 1770
1875: In the reign of Edward I., efforts were made to prevent the alienation of land by those who received it from the Norman sovereigns. The statute of mortmain was passed to restrain the giving of lands to the Church — Landholding in England, 1875.
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