pre-emption
(priːˈɛm(p)ʃən)
[ad. med.L. *præemptiōn-em, n. of action f. *præemĕre to buy beforehand: see pre- A. 2 and emption. Cf. F. préemption (1812 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Purchase by one person or corporation before an opportunity is offered to others; also, the right to make such purchase; spec. a. formerly in England, the prerogative of the sovereign, exercised through his purveyor, of buying household provisions in preference to other persons, and at special rates.
b. in U.S., Australia, etc., the purchase, or right of purchase, in preference and at a nominal price, of public land by an actual occupant, on condition of his improving it; also concr., land so obtained or to be obtained.
c. in International Law, the right of a belligerent, sometimes recognized by treaty, to seize, with indemnification of the owners, such goods of neutrals as are doubtfully or conditionally contraband.
d. clause of pre-emption, in Sc. Law: see quot. 1861.
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 17 Certaine persons..sought to make vse of this preemption. 1610 Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 16 Her late Maiestie intended to have retayned the prerogative of pre-emption. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 2 Those of Stode haue by priuiledge the preemption and choice of Rhenish Wines passing by them. 1622 E. Misselden Free Trade 59 This kinde is the Preemption of Tinne here in England granted by His Maiesties gracious letters Patents to some few. 1663 F. Phillips (title) The Antiquity..and Necessity of Pre-emption and Pourveyance, for the King. 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2379/4 The Farmers of His Majesties Coynage and Preemption of Tinn,..have affix'd the Price 10 d. the Pound. 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5859/9 They have..the Pre-emption of the..Lead and Iron Oars. 1747 First Rec. Baltimore Town (1905) 21 Mr. Alexander Lawson applied also to enter his Preemption of making out Ground into the water. 1827 United Empire Loyalist (Toronto) 6 May 396/2 The first hundred purchasers of Town Lots, when they have erected a habitable house, will..be entitled to the pre-emption or privilege to purchase a Lot of Twenty-Five Acres..at..7s. 6d. per acre. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. iv. iv, He consented to give me the pre-emption of twenty thousand acres. a 1844 Filson Club Hist. Q. (1935) IX. 235 Each of these two men..had a pre-emption of 1400 acres. 1859 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. II. 239 The Papal government..has the right of pre-emption whenever any relics of ancient art are discovered. 1860 Woolsey Introd. Internat. Law §182. 403 The harshness of the doctrine of occasional contraband brought into favor the rule of pre-emption, which was a sort of compromise between the belligerents (if masters of the sea) and the neutrals. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 172/2 Clause of Pre-emption is a clause sometimes inserted in a feu-right, stipulating, that if the vassal shall be inclined to sell the lands he shall give the superior the first offer, or that the superior shall have the lands at a certain price fixed in the clause. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 537 The prerogative of purveyance included..the right of preemption of victuals. 1901 Duncan & Scott Hist. Allen & Woodson Counties, Kansas 582 Finding that the Indians would not settle on the Reserve, the Government, in 1860, had all of these lands offered for sale and opened to pre-emption. 1933 W. W. Spinks Tales Brit. Columbia Frontier 110 Some of the land had already been pre-empted, and pre-emption amounted to an agreement by the government to sell the land to the pre-empter. 1968 R. H. Patterson Finlay's River 43, I see I have called it a homestead. Officially, in the books of the Land Registry, it is a pre-emption. |
e. attrib. and Comb.
| 1780 in N. D. Mereness Trav. Amer. Colonies (1916) 643 Received a Letter and Preemption Warrant. 1784 J. Filson Discovery Kentucke 37 The Settlement and preemption rights arise from occupation. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 92 In 1830, a bill was..passed, granting a pre-emption right to squatters who had taken such possession of unsold lands. 1854 T. H. Benton Thirty Years' View (1857) I. 102 The pre-emption system was established, though at first the pre-emption claimant was stigmatized as a trespasser, and repulsed as a criminal. 1901 Daily News 21 Feb. 5/7 The landlord buys at the pre-emption price, and sells at the market price. |
2. Bridge. The action of making a preemptive bid.
| 1961 Times 6 Dec. 8/3 A two-suiter is not built for preemption. 1962 Times 7 Mar. 3/6 A preemption in one of the minor suits is even less efficacious unless the hand has two tricks on the side. 1974 Country Life 26 Sept. 894/1 The hand is far too good for pre-emption. 1977 Times 17 June 12/1, I have been making notes of unsuccessful preemptions with their effect on subsequent bidding. |
3. The action or an instance of setting aside or overriding something.
| 1978 Nature 20 Apr. 664/1 The issue of Federal preemption—Federal legislation that overrides state or local initiatives—lies at the heart of the current dispute. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. (Tucson T.V. Suppl.) 12/3 CBS hasn't treated this inspirational program very kindly. It's constantly being victimized by pre-emptions, time-slot changes and disappearances for up to three weeks at a stretch. |
Hence pre-ˈemptioner, ‘one who holds a prior right to purchase certain public land’ (Webster 1890, citing Abbott).
| 1838 Congress. Globe 25th Congress 2 Sess. App. 142/3 Suppose a pre-emptioner was to go there and say, Mr. President, this house is too large for you; I..claim a preemption to part of this house. 1841 Knickerbocker XVII. 278 They amused themselves by calling the exclusives ‘squatters’, ‘prëemptioners’, etc. 1872 [see homesteader]. |