Past tense of escheat; property that reverted to the state or feudal lord because the owner died without legal heirs.
From escheat (to revert to the state), from Old French 'escheoir' meaning to happen or fall to. Legal terminology dating to medieval English property law.
When someone escheated their property, it wasn't punishment—it was the system working as designed. In a world without reliable record-keeping, escheating unclaimed land made practical sense.
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