Transferred by will or lease; or referring to a deceased person in legal language.
From Middle French 'demise' (transfer, death), derived from Old French 'demettre' (to dismiss). Originally meant 'death of a sovereign,' evolved to mean legal transfer of property.
The word 'demised' shows how death and legal documents got tangled together in English law—when medieval kings died and their property transferred, lawyers created a fancy word that made mortality sound like paperwork.
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