I was staring at a big “REAL ESTATE” sign today, and it came to mind that I really don’t know the etymology of “real estate” or “realty.”
I looked it up in the AHD and couldn’t find a history of the words, but instead got “property” and “the sale of property.”
My friend thinks it is a term that’s pretty face-value kind of thing. “Real” being tangible and “estate” being property. Real Estate is holdings you have that are tangible land.
But what about a car or a piece of jewlery? They are tangible, and part of your estate. What makes the land/house “real” and the other stuff … stuff?
“Real” is from the Latin res, meaning “thing.” The jurisprudence of property was, in medieval courts, divided between action for restitution in kind (i.e., return of property) and action for compensation (i.e., damages paid in money). Generally, the return of the res was required for land, leading to “real” property, whereas compensation was preferred for chattels, or “personal” property.
Real means referring to things while personal means referring to persons. Real rights and duties attach to things while personal rights and obligations attach to people.
Suppose I own some property (land, ship, whatever) and I did not pay a certain tax dues for the year 2000 and then sold that property in 2001. If the tax obligation was a personal one, I still owe the tax while if the tax obligation is a real one, then it went with the property and the new owner owes it.
On ye olden times land had attached rights (voting, etc) which were real rights as they transferred with the property.