Definition
An archaic Anglo-French and early English form of the word "inheritance." In historical legal usage, enheritance carried the same meaning as inheritance: the right to receive or the act of receiving property, title, or an estate by descent or by operation of law upon the death of a predecessor. The term appears almost exclusively in medieval and early modern English legal texts and has been entirely displaced by "inheritance" in modern legal writing.
Common Confusion
Enheritance should not be confused with disinheritance, which refers specifically to the deliberate exclusion of an heir from receiving an inheritance. The superficial resemblance of the prefix can mislead a quick reader. Enheritance describes the positive acquisition of property by descent; disinheritance describes the legal act of defeating that expectation.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in early English legal records, Year Books, plea rolls, or pre-modern conveyancing documents may encounter "enheritance" where a modern source would read "inheritance." The terms are interchangeable in meaning, but the orthographic variation matters for keyword searching: a full-text search of historical corpus materials using only "inheritance" will miss documents that use the older form. The Law Mind corpus is particularly likely to surface this term in medieval pleading records, early treatises, and Norman-influenced legal texts where Anglo-French forms persisted alongside their Anglicized equivalents. Researchers should run parallel searches under both forms when canvassing historical sources for inheritance doctrine. No substantive legal distinction between enheritance and inheritance is recognized in any source; the variation is purely formal and linguistic.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Burrill and Black treat this term as a simple linguistic variant, not a distinct legal concept. Burrill, citing Cowell's Interpreter, describes it as "the old form of inheritance," placing it squarely in the category of obsolete Anglo-French legal vocabulary. Black's second edition reduces the entry to two words: "L. Fr. Inheritance." The two sources agree entirely; there is no divergence worth noting. Neither source provides substantive doctrinal content because none exists — the term has no independent legal significance beyond its identity with inheritance. Researchers should not expect historical dictionaries to shed further light here. The substantive law governing what the term describes is found under inheritance, hereditament, descent, and related entries.