A person who unlawfully seizes or diminishes someone else's property or estate, especially by entering land without permission.
From Old French 'abatour,' derived from 'abattre' (to beat down, overthrow). In medieval English law, this term specifically described someone who illegally took possession of lands after the owner's death.
In medieval times, when property laws were fuzzy and inheritance complicated, opportunistic people would just move onto abandoned land and claim it—so the law had to invent a special word for these squatters.
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