Adeemed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Cancelled or revoked a gift of property left in a will, typically because the testator no longer possesses it or intends to give it differently
2. Revoked a bequest by removing it from a will or by disposing of the property that was meant to pass under the will's terms
3. Extinguished a testamentary gift through its removal from a will or the disposal of the bequeathed property before the testator's death

Etymology: "Adeemed" is the past tense and past participle of "adeem," a verb meaning to revoke or cancel, most often used in law for a bequest that is withdrawn because the testator no longer owns the property it named. The verb comes from Latin "adimere," meaning "to take away," built from "ad" ("to, towards") and "emere," meaning "to buy" or "to acquire," so the original sense was closer to taking something back than to any idea of cancellation. The Latin "emere" is the same root that gives English "redeem," "exempt," and "example" in its older sense of a sample taken from a group. Its prefixed partner "adimere" kept the physical idea of removing something from someone's grasp, and English inherited that sense in the legal vocabulary of gifts and wills, where a gift that has been taken back is said to be adeemed.