Tailzie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Scottish deed that ties landed property to a fixed line of heirs so it cannot be sold or divided freely
2. A legal settlement under Scots law that binds an estate to named successors and blocks its free transfer
3. An entail in Scottish property law, fixing the order of inheritance for land and preventing its alienation

Etymology: Scots law has long used "tailzie" for a settlement that fixes who may inherit a piece of land, cutting the estate into a line of heirs chosen in advance. The word comes from French "tailler", "to cut", and the Scots "tail" it grew from means a limitation, the cut that confines an inheritance to specified successors. The same French root gave English "tail" in this legal sense, so the Scottish term is a close cousin of the English one. The spelling with "z" is a Scottish quirk rather than a separate root. The same letter appears in the surname Mackenzie, and the pattern shows how Scots spelling handled the sounds of French and Latin-derived words differently from English.