▪ I. impropriate, v.
(ɪmˈprəʊprɪeɪt)
[f. ppl. stem of med. or mod.L. impropriāre: see improper v.1 and cf. appropriate v.]
† 1. trans. To make proper or peculiar to some person or thing: to make one's (or some one's) own; to appropriate. Obs.
| 1567 Drant Horace, Ep. To Rdr. *vj, To impropriate it to me it were neither honestye, nor wysedom. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 3 In that period of time, which the wisdome of God hath impropriated unto them. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iv. xlvi. 378 They..that impropriate the Preaching of the Gospell to one certain Order of men. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. I. 279 In this imprudent and nauseous discourse, you have all along appropriated or impropriated all the Loyalty from the Nobility, the Gentry and the Commonalty, and dedicated it to the Church. 1703 S. Centlivre Stolen Heiress ii, The venerable man to whom this goodly mansion is impropriated. |
† b. With inverted construction: To instal (a person) as proprietor. Const. into. Obs. rare.
| 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. iii. 164 To impropriate my self into that which is not mine. |
2. spec. To annex (an ecclesiastical benefice) to a corporation or person, as their corporate or private property; esp. b. (in later use) to place tithes or ecclesiastical property in lay hands.
Impropriate was in early use applied to the annexation of the tithes of a benefice to a religious house; at the Reformation most of these impropriations passed into lay hands, so that the word came to be specially associated with the lay possession of tithes, the synonym appropriate being subsequently taken to designate the original sense (with a covert allusion to the adjs. appropriate and improper): see impropriation 1.
| 1538 Leland Itin. I. 41 Robert Sun to Hilbert Lacy impropriate booth this Hospital and S. Clementes yn the Castelle..to the new Priorie. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1302/1 The patronage and lordship of Woodburie..he gave and impropriated unto the vicars chorall of his church. |
| b. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage ii. vii. 113 Of nine thousand two hundred eighty and foure parishes in England..three thousand eight hundred fortie five were (as it is properly termed) impropriated. 1697 C. Leslie Snake in Grass (ed. 2) 265 To maintain the Sacrilegious Impropriations which the Pope had made of the Tythes of the Secular Clergy, to endow their Monasteries: which Hen. VIII. instead of Restoring, did yet more Sacrilegiously Impropriate to the Laity. 1827, 1860 [see impropriated]. |
▪ II. impropriate, ppl. a.
(ɪmˈprəʊprɪət)
[ad. med. or mod.L. impropriāt-us, pa. pple. of impropriāre: see prec. vb.]
1. Appropriated to some particular person or persons. ? Obs.
| a 1600 Hooker Serm. Jude 17–21 §19 Look upon Israel,..to whom..the promises of Christ were made impropriate. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 1 A grace impropriate to the elect. 1706 De Foe Jure Div. v. 8 If we dislike his Law, We must from his impropriate Lands withdraw. |
2. spec. Of a benefice or its revenues: = impropriated 2. (See impropriate v. 2.)
| 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 71 The Personage of Aulcester is impropriate to Aulcester Priory. 1555 Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary c. 4 §7 Rectories Personages and Benefices impropryate. 1631 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 66 The plaintiff S{supr} Edward Leech holdeth the tythes of the parsonage impropriate of Chesterfield, which tythes the Vicar of Chesterfield claymed to hold by an auncient composition. 1707 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. i. 3 Hereof 3845 [parishes] are Churches impropriate, i.e. in Lay-Hands, where Lay-men receive the Tythes; or Appropriate, i.e. annexed to Church-Dignities. 1850 H. Martineau Hist. Peace iv. ix. II. 114 There were different kinds of tithes—the vicarial, rectorial, and impropriate. 1889 Land Agent's Rec. 6 Apr. 317, I pay the impropriate tithes as well. |