abeyance
(əˈbeɪəns)
Also 7 abeiance, abbayance.
[a. Anglo-Fr. abeiance, abeyance (Littleton), = OFr. abeance, abaence, n. of condition, f. abeer, abaher, to gape or aspire after; f. à to + beer, baer, bader, mod. bayer, to open wide (the mouth), gape = Pr. and Sp. badar, It. badare:—late L. badāre (in Isidore = oscitare, ‘to open the mouth wide, gape’); origin undetermined: see conjectures in Diez and Littré. In OFr. the condition of the heir or other aspirant, in whose abeance, aspiration, or appetence a title or property stood; hence in Eng. law applied to the condition of the property, the ownership of which is thus claimed, or merely liable to be claimed by some one.]
1. Law. Expectation or contemplation of law; the position of waiting for or being without a claimant or owner.
| 1528 Perkins Profitable Booke (1642) xi. §708. 308 The fee is in abeyance. 1574 tr. Littleton, Tenures 119 a, The righte of fee simple is in abeiance, that is to say alonely in the remembrance, entendemente and consideration of the lawe. 1649 Selden Laws of Eng. (1739) i. lxvi. 145 The right was vanished into the Clouds, or, as the Lawyers term it, in Abeyance. 1691 Blount Law Dict. s.v. And it is a Principle in the Law, That of every Land there is a Fee-simple in some man, or it is in Abeyance. 1763 Ld. Barrington in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 449. IV. 462 Sir Francis Dashwood called to the House of Lords as Baron Dispenser (in abeyance since Lord Westmoreland's death). 1863 Cox Inst. of Eng. Gov. i. vii. 67 There are several instances of a barony revived after an abeyance of several centuries. 1864 Boutell Heraldry Hist. & Pop. xiii. 90 The Peerage that is in Abeyance is dormant only, and not dead. |
2. A state of suspension, temporary non-existence or inactivity; dormant or latent condition liable to be at any time revived.
| 1660 R. Coke Elem. Power & Subj. 61 And this monarchy not a thing in abeiance, an aiery title, but an absolute free and independent monarchy. 1794 Burke Sp. agst. Hastings Wks. XV. 13 His honour is in abeyance; his estimation is suspended, and he stands as it were a doubtful person. 1829 Scott Demonol. vi. 181 The belief was fallen into abeyance. 1868 Milman St. Paul's xvii. 419 In the abeyance of the Cathedral services. 1878 Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. vii. §204. 203 That the soul may remain veiled or in abeyance until the resurrection. |