A legal term meaning to put someone in possession of a freehold property or to seize property legally as part of a court judgment.
From Old French 'aseisir', from 'a-' (to) + 'seisir' (to seize). It entered English through Norman legal terminology and was commonly used in medieval property law.
This obscure legal term is a fossil from Norman English—it appears in Magna Carta and medieval property disputes, representing a time when English law was literally written in French by Norman conquerors.
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