estate

pronunciation

How to pronounce estate in British English: UK [ɪˈsteɪt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce estate in American English: US [ɪˈsteɪt] word us audio image

Noun:

everything you own; all of your assets (whether real property or personal property) and liabilities
extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use
a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country and formerly possessing distinct political rights

Word Origin

estate: estate: [13] Essentially, estate and state are the same word, and originally their meanings were very close (the now archaic ‘reach man’s estate’, for instance, signifies ‘reach the state of manhood’). From the 15th century, however, they began to diverge, estate taking a semantic path via ‘interest in property’ to ‘such property itself’, and finally, in the 18th century, to the ‘land owned by someone’. Both come via Old French estat from Latin status ‘way of standing, condition’ (source of English status), a derivative of the verb stāre ‘stand’ (a relative of English stand).=> stand, state, statue, status

estate (n.): early 13c., "rank, standing, condition," from Anglo-French astat, Old French estat "state, position, condition, health, status, legal estate" (13c., Modern French état), from Latin status "state or condition, position, place; social position of the aristocracy," from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). For the excrescent e-, see e-. Sense of "property" is late 14c., from that of "worldly prosperity;" specific application to "landed property" (usually of large extent) is first recorded in American English 1620s. A native word for this was Middle English ethel (Old English æðel) "ancestral land or estate, patrimony." Meaning "collective assets of a dead person or debtor" is from 1830. The three estates (in Sweden and Aragon, four) conceived as orders in the body politic date from late 14c. In France, they are the clergy, nobles, and townsmen; in England, originally the clergy, barons, and commons, later Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and commons. For Fourth Estate see four.