The act of undoing or reversing something that was previously done, especially in legal contexts where a condition cancels an agreement.
From Old French 'defaire' (to undo) combined with '-ance' (state or quality). The prefix 'de-' means to reverse, and 'faire' means to do or make. This legal term emerged in medieval English law to describe how conditions could void previous actions.
In medieval property law, defaisance was crucial—a landowner could give land conditionally, and if the condition wasn't met, defaisance would automatically reverse the transfer. It's like an ancient 'undo' button written into legal documents before computers existed!
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