Third person singular present tense of devise; plans, invents, or arranges something.
From devise, an Old French verb meaning to arrange or plan. Became particularly important in English legal language for describing how property is arranged in wills.
In legal English, when someone devises their estate, they're literally dividing it up—which is why a 'devise' in a will is different from a 'bequest' (the old root literally means divide).
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