Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
A small piece of land, such as a garth or yard with the buildings and structures on it, immediately surrounding a dwelling house and legally regarded as part of its property; originally, such areas were enclosed by a fence or wall.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: law, property
Synonyms: grounds
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the enclosed land around a house or other building
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: yard, grounds
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: field
Narrower terms: backyard, dooryard, front yard, garden, playground, side yard
History
Inherited from Middle English courtelage, curtilage, curtylage (“vegetable garden; croft; gardening, farming”), from Anglo-Norman curtilage, from Old French cortillage, courtillage (modern French courtillage (obsolete); compare Medieval Latin cortilagium, curtilagium), from cortil, cortill (“small court, garth”) + -age (suffix denoting a relationship with a place). Cortil, cortill are derived from cort, curt (“court of a monarch”) + -il (suffix forming place names); and cort, curt from Latin cōrtem, the accusative singular form of cōrs, a variant of cohors (“court; enclosure; farmyard; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by; near; with”) + *ǵher- (“to enclose”).
Across languages
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
