seise
- 1To vest legal ownership of an estate in land in a particular person.
A properly executed deed could seise the buyer of the freehold within days.
The settlement seised his eldest son of the entire estate upon the father's death.
Oppositedivest, dispossess, disseise
Note
A word from feudal land law, where holding land was a relationship as much as a title. It came through Old French seisir, "to put in possession of," from a Frankish verb meaning "to sue, bring a legal charge." Nigel Saul's The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England (1997) describes a baron "created and seised by the king in a single act," his tenure resting on his bond with that king. The possession it confers is called seisin.
- 2To place someone in lawful possession of property, rights, or goods.
Once signed, the grant will seise the tenant of full possession.
The decree seised the heirs of their grandfather's holdings.
Oppositedispossess, divest, disseise
Note
The construction is seise someone of something, and it is most often met in the passive. In Joshua Williams's The Seisin of the Freehold (1878), an heir is "not actually seised of Whiteacre." Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 carries the idea beyond land: an appeal committee is "seised" once a matter has been referred to it and formally comes before it. Keep the s: seised, not seized.
- 3To take hold of or grab something, often suddenly or by force.
Bandits would seise any merchant who traveled alone after dark.
He seised the dagger from the table and turned to face them.
Note
An older spelling of the everyday verb of grabbing, and one that now reads as archaic. It comes from the same Old French verb behind the land-law sense, which is why the two spellings were once interchangeable. In modern writing, use seize for taking hold and keep seise for the legal meanings. When older text has someone who "seised the dagger," read it simply as seized.
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Origin
This comes from Middle English seisen, from Old French seisir ("to put in possession of," "to take possession of"), from Early Medieval Latin sacīre, from Frankish *sakjan ("to bring a legal charge against"), and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to track." It is related to Old High German sahhan ("to argue") and Old English sacian ("to contend").