A feudal right or property that reverts to a lord when a vassal dies without heirs; similar to but distinct from 'escheat.'
A rare variant of 'escheat,' from Old French escheoir (to fall to, devolve), from Vulgar Latin excadere (to fall out). The ex- prefix emphasizes the sense of something falling away or reverting.
Excheat and escheat represent a fascinating period in English legal history when nobody was quite sure how to spell feudal property law—these variant spellings coexisted for centuries before 'escheat' won out, showing how language standardization gradually takes hold.
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