Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Emphyteusis
/ˌɛmfɪˈtjuːsɪs/noun
A perpetual or very long lease of land granted on condition that the tenant improves and cultivates it.
The Greek roots
ἐν
en
in, into
φυτεύειν
phyteúein
to plant
Literally: “a planting-in”
The story of the word
Roman law took the word straight from Greek farming, where ἐμφύτευσις meant setting plants into ground. The tenant held the land almost forever, paying a small rent, in exchange for putting vines or olives on soil the owner had no wish to work himself. Emperor Zeno ruled in the fifth century that this was neither sale nor lease but a contract of its own kind, and the category survived into the civil codes of Italy, Spain and Louisiana.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
neophytephytoplanktonepiphytephytochemical
In a sentence
The abbey granted the marshland by emphyteusis, so the family drained it and kept it for three centuries.