Porpresure

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An unlawful enclosure or building that encroaches on public land, a highway, or other property held for common use
2. Illegal occupation or enclosure of public ground, such as a road or open space, by a private person
3. A historical legal term for the wrongful seizure of common or royal land by building on or fencing it off

Etymology: The word looks like a relative of "pressure," but the resemblance is misleading. It comes from Anglo-Norman "porpresture," an encroachment or enclosure, derived from the Old French verb "porprendre," meaning to seize entirely or take over. That verb combines "pour-," meaning "completely" or "forth," with "prendre," "to take," which descends from Latin "prehendere." English legal writers used the term from the Middle Ages onward for unlawfully taking over land, especially building on a public road, common ground, or the Crown's property. Its meaning stayed narrow and technical. Medieval English courts pursued porpresures as offences against the king's domain and public rights of way, and the term survived mainly in legal records and older legal writing. The "pressure" spelling reflects a later folk association with the more familiar English word, not a shared origin. The modern sense of pressure comes from Latin "pressura," from "premere," "to press," which is an unrelated root.

Synonyms: encroachment, trespass