Wayleaves

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legal permission granting access across someone's land so that pipes, cables or lines can be installed and maintained, often in exchange for a regular payment
2. Authorization allowing a utility company or other party to pass over private property to lay and service underground or overhead infrastructure
3. The right of passage over another person's ground, typically given for running pipelines or power lines, usually secured by an agreed fee

Etymology: "Wayleaves" is the plural of "wayleave," a noun formed from two plain English words: "way," meaning a route or passage, and "leave," meaning permission. A wayleave is therefore literally a permission to pass along a way, most often a right granted by a landowner to a company or utility to run a pipeline, cable or power line across the land, or to reach a site over it. The plural simply refers to several such grants or rights at once. The word's form is transparent in a way many legal terms are not. Its two halves have remained stable in meaning, so the compound reads almost exactly as it sounds, and the pairing of "way" with "leave" is a native English construction rather than a borrowing from Latin or French.

Synonyms: easement, right of way