Curtilage

[Dr. Goodword]

• curtilage •

Pronunciation: kêrt-ê-lij • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: The area surrounding a house considered part of its property by virtue of a fence surrounding it.

Notes: Here is a real lexical orphan—no derivational relatives. Admittedly, this is generally a legal or real estate term. However, it might find a place in your conversations and is shorter than the alternative: the definition above.

In Play: Remember, today's word refers to a house and an attached plot of land surrounded by fencing: "The price of the property was high because it contained a large curtilage." Its meaning is so specific, it should be useful even if rarely: "Fred's new house had a curtilage just the right size for a sumptuous garden."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a simplification of Old French courtillage, from courtil, diminutive of cort "court". Old French inherited cort from Latin cohor(t)s "courtyard, corral". Latin came by the word from Proto-Indo-European gher-/ghor- "enclose, enclosure". This PIE word is one of the most productive in all Indo-European languages. It appears in Latin also as hortus "garden", borrowed by English (as well as by several other IE languages) in horticulture. It became gorod "city" in Russian and grad "city" in Old Church Slavonic, prominent in Leningrad and Beograd "White city" = "Belgrade". In Germanic, the o-variant is visible in English garden and German Garten, which we find in the borrowing kindergarten "children's garden". English used the e-variant, too, in Old English geard, which today is yard. (Now a word of gratitude to Jeremy Busch, who recommended today's excellent Good Word in the Alpha Agora.)

[MTC]

"Within the curtilage" is a legal expression. According to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell University Law School:

Curtilage includes the area immediately surrounding a dwelling, and it counts as part of the home for many legal purposes, including searches and many self-defense laws. When considering whether something is in a dwelling's curtilage, courts consider four factors:

1.) The proximity of the thing to the dwelling;
2.)Whether the thing is within an enclosure surrounding the home;
3.)What the thing is used for.
4.)What steps, if any, the resident took to protect the thing from observation/ access by people passing by.

The Supreme Court suggested these factors in the context of determining whether or not a barn was part of a house's curtilage. See United States v. Dunn (1987), 480 U.S. 294.

....

For some legal purposes your "home" may be bigger than you think. Congratulations.

"Within the curtilage" reminds me of another expression-- "beyond the pale"-- but in reverse. Goodwordians probably know "beyond the pale" has come to mean beyond the realm of acceptable behavior, and that pales were pointed sticks used as a fence, often around homes. When you were "beyond the pale," you were outside the area accepted as "home."

The lesson I extract: Be sure you do not go beyond the pale within the curtilage or you may suffer legal consequences.

[tkowal]

Polish, besides the words "gród" (town) and "ogród" (garden) seems to have kept the original PIE meaning: "ogrodzenie" (noun fence) and "ogrodzić" (verb to fence).

[George Kovac]

In 1975, a tabloid reporter seized 5 opaque plastic garbage bags from outside the home of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and examined their contents, hoping to find a story. The garbage was outside of Mr. Kissinger's curtilage, and thus he could not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, nor would such a seizure, even it had been conducted by government officials, have been prohibited by the Fourth Amendment, since it occurred outside of the curtilage. The moral of the story is be careful of your garbage, the press will find it and report it.

[Slava]

Here's another, really clear explanation of curtilage: it's the land within the fence that surrounds your toft or messuage. Perfectly clear, no?

[Debbymoge]

Oh my goodness!
Slava, you could at least have provided links!!

Toft Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
toft noun ˈtȯft ˈtäft British : a site for a dwelling and its outbuildings also : an entire holding comprising a homestead and additional land

Messuage Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
mes· suage ˈmes-wij : a dwelling house with the adjacent buildings and curtilage and other adjoining lands used in connection with the household History and Etymology for messuage Anglo-French, probably alteration of Old French mesnage dwelling house, ultimately from Latin mansion- mansio habitation, dwelling, from manēre to remain, sojourn, dwell


How did you ever find these?
Or are they a regular usage in your part of the world...

I particularly like the second, as I find more and more my menage is becoming a mess as I lack regular access to massage.

[Slava]

Toft was in a crossword puzzle I did, so I had to look it up. My dictionary included messuage, which itself sent me to curtilage. Whew!

Fun, no?

[Debbymoge]

Slava, finding new words is always fun...

except when it's infuriating,
or confusing,
or upsetting that I can't retain them and have to start all over again...

HEY! that's the fun of it!
Works against the isolation of CoViD and/or age and/or debility...
Keeps the brain active
Leads to new ideas
and the Good Doctor gives us a platform on which to share them, question them, spread them...

In regard to today's word, resolution, perhaps we could all resolve to spread the word (pardon the pun) about this site, perhaps increasing participation thereby, and if that all goes well, perhaps increasing the financial support necessary to keep us all so richly amused?

[David Myer]

Excellent idea Debby, and one way of encouraging more participation in the Discussion and Suggestion forums/fora might be for every Word of the Day post to include a prominent footnote inviting such discussion. I know there is a link at the bottom, but it is a bit outside the box and not really a direct invitation.

What say you, Doc?

[Slava]

What I have done from time to time, working to keep the board active, is go to the Unanswered Topics in the Quick Links and choose something from there to babble on about. There are currently over 1,000 of the critters awaiting comment.