Definition
*Dare ad remanentiam* is a Latin phrase from the feudal conveyancing tradition meaning "to give away in fee" — that is, to grant land outright and permanently, so that it remains with the grantee and their heirs without possibility of reverting to the grantor. The phrase captures the quality of the grant rather than its mechanism: the land is given to *remain* with the recipient forever, as distinguished from a grant limited in duration or subject to conditions of return.
---
Common Language
This is pure legal Latin with no counterpart in ordinary English usage. The COMMON LANGUAGE section does not apply.
---
Common Confusion
*Dare ad remanentiam* should be distinguished from related Latin conveyancing phrases that describe grants of lesser or conditional quality. A grant *in fee simple* achieves the same practical result under modern doctrine, but older sources may use *dare ad remanentiam* specifically to emphasize the irrevocability and perpetuity of the transfer — the "remaining away" from the grantor — rather than simply the nature of the estate created. Researchers encountering this phrase in historical instruments should not conflate it with grants *in tail* (to heirs of the body only) or grants for life, both of which fall short of the permanent alienation the phrase denotes.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This phrase belongs to the technical vocabulary of medieval and early modern conveyancing and will surface almost exclusively in pre-eighteenth-century instruments, treatises, and year books. It is diagnostic language: when a scrivener or pleader used *dare ad remanentiam*, they were signaling that the grant was a full, unconditional alienation — no reversion, no condition subsequent, no life estate. Researchers working in early land records, monastic cartularies, or feudal tenure disputes will find the phrase useful as a marker of the grantor's intent to permanently divest.
The primary research trap is treating the phrase as merely decorative Latin. In contexts where the quality of a grant was contested — particularly disputes over whether land had been given outright or only for a term — the presence or absence of *ad remanentiam* language could bear directly on the outcome. Its absence from an instrument that a party claimed was a fee simple grant would have been legally significant.
Because the phrase is archaic and highly specialized, it does not migrate into modern legal documents or statutes. Researchers should not expect to find it in sources after the early nineteenth century except as a historical reference or in scholarly commentary on feudal tenures.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd ed.) defines the phrase tersely: "To give away in fee, or forever." This is accurate and sufficient for identification purposes, but it compresses two analytically distinct ideas — the nature of the estate (fee) and the permanence of the transfer (forever) — into a single gloss. The compression is not misleading, but it obscures the emphasis the phrase places on irrevocability. The word *remanentiam*, from *remanere* (to remain, to stay behind), points specifically to the land remaining with the grantee rather than returning; this directional quality — the land leaving the grantor permanently — is what the phrase foregrounds.
No other source dictionaries were consulted for this entry. The historical record on this phrase is thin in English-language legal dictionaries; its fuller treatment appears in Latin legal glossaries and commentaries on feudal tenure.
---
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase is a product of the English feudal land law tradition and its cognates in continental European feudalism. It has no operative use in any modern jurisdiction. Researchers in Scottish, Irish, or colonial American land records may encounter it in early instruments that drew on English conveyancing forms.
---