Also 5 tenne-, 6 tennand-, tena-. [a. AF., = OF. tenement (12th c. in Godef.), ad. med.L. tenement-um (1081 in Muratori, Antiquitates, IX. [1776], 660), also teni-, tena-, teneamentum (12th c. in Du Cange), f. L. tenēre to hold + -mentum, -MENT.]
† 1. The fact of holding as a possession; tenure. Free tenement = FRANK-TENEMENT, FREEHOLD.
As by the theory of English Law all land is held immediately or ultimately of the sovereign, ‘tenement’ embraced all forms of proprietorship or occupation of real property.
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B., 520, lf. 41. Þoru suuche dede sokage is ibore out in to fre tenement.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 34. To do doun Edwy at a parlement, & tille his broþer Edgare gyf þe tenement. Ibid., 83. William passid þe se, þer of he mad þe skrite, Of France to hold þat fe of oþer tenement alle quite. Ibid., 255. Depriued þei our kyng of alle þe tenement Of londes of Gascoyn.
1651. G. W., trans. Corvel’s Inst., 79. Free Tenement or free-hold is, where Lands and Tenements are held only for life of the Tenant.
2. Land or real property which is held of another by any tenure; a holding.
Tenement at will, a tenement held at the will of the superior; also fig.
[1315. Rolls of Parlt., I. 349/2. Johan de Eston demaunda ces Tenementz,… come son dreit.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 48. If he saued to his heyers oiþer lond or tenement.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., iii. (1885), 114. Somme of thaim þat were wont to pay to his lorde for his tenement, wich he hiryth by the yere, a scute.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn, xvi. 52. I shal … make hym pryuated from all his tenementes that he holdeth of me.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 60. This deere-deere Land,… Is now Leas’d out … Like to a Tenement or pelting Farme.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 812. The Tenement (i. e. the Real Estate) of the Deceased.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. ii. 16. Tenement is a word of still greater extent [than land], and though in it’s vulgar acceptation it is only applied to houses and other buildings, yet in it’s original, proper, and legal sense, it signifies every thing that may be holden, provided it be of a permanent nature; whether it be of a substantial and sensible, or of an unsubstantial ideal kind.
1822. Wordsw., Scenery of Lakes, ii. (1823), 44. The multitude of tenements (I … mean … small divisions of land, which belonged formerly each to a several proprietor, and for which separate fines are paid to the manorial lord at this day).
b. pl. ‘The technical expression for freehold interests in things immovable considered as subjects of property, they being not “owned” but “holden”’ (Digby, Real Property, ii. § 2); esp. in lands and tenements, i.e., lands and all other freehold interests.
In the common modern usage of English lawyers leaseholds are included, though some authorities think this incorrect, for the reason that, being (in England) personal property, they are not the subject of tenure in the strict sense.
[1292. Britton, I. xix. § 4. Et ausi des terres et des tenementz alienez par felouns.]
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B., 520, lf. 29 b. No religious or ani oþer ani londes ore tenemens buche ne sulle … on ani maner … ware þoru thulke londes or tenemens in ani manere miȝtte comen in to dede hond.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 265. Kyng Edward and þe lordes made a statute aȝenst maynmort, so þat after þat tyme no man schulde ȝeve … ne by oþere title assigne londes, tenementis ne oþer rentes to men of religioun wiþouten þe kynges leve.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 390. Statutes made to refourme suche persones as mysused the landes and tenementes, commynge to theym by reason of the dower, or landes of theyr wyues.
1529. Cromwell, Will, in Merriman, Life. & Lett. (1902), I. 56. I will myn executours undernamed … shall purchase londes tenementes and hereditamentes to the clere yerelye value of xxxiijll vjs viijd.
1530. Palsgr., 280/1. Tenementes, reuenues.
1542. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 33. The one halff off all the saide lands, tennandments, rents and all other servyces, with revertions and appertenawnces belonging ye same.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 142. The Shirifes of London at those dayes might lawfully enter into the towne of Westminster, and all other Tenementes, that the Abbot had within Middlesex.
1580. Lupton, Sivqila, 141. All deedes and writings of any lands, tenements, houses, woods, or such like, that are solde.
1622. Callis, Stat. Sewers (1647), 108. The word Tenements is of larger extent then Lands; for it containeth all which the word Lands doth, and all things else which lyeth in Tenure.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 322. He [was] then possessed of several lands and tenements in Taunton.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), VI. 219. The words lands, tenements, and hereditaments, will pass every species of property.
1848. Williams, Law Personal Property (1870), 1. In ancient times property was divided into lands, tenements and hereditaments on the one hand, and goods and chattels on the other.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., ii. § 2. 72, note.
3. gen. A building or house to dwell in; a dwelling-place, a habitation, residence, abode.
c. 1425. Brut, 367. So was he brouȝt to þe Whit-Freris yn Flet-strete; and þere was do and made a ryal & solempne tenement for hym.
1477–9. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 84. For ij ml tiles spent in reparacion of the tenement of William Blase and of othir tenementes, x s viij d.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. x. 9. Syne Troianis foundis tenementis for thame self.
1588. Knaresborough Wills (Surtees), I. 159. The lease … in the tenement where I now dwell.
1607. Norden, Surv. Dial., III. 106. Whether are there within this Mannor, any new erected Tenements or Cotages, barnes, Walls.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 95. The tenement contains many families, who live in cabins on each side of a wide common hall, that goes through the middle of it.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Briery Creek, iii. The resources which they wasted would have … turned their habitation of logs into a respectable brick tenement.
1844. Williams, Real Prop. (1875), 13. The word tenement is often used in law, as in ordinary language, to signify a house.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, vii. The dingy tenement inhabited by Miss Tox was her own.
1890. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, xxi. 246. And so it comes down to the tenement, the destroyer of individuality and character everywhere.
b. transf. and fig. An abode; a dwelling-place, esp. applied to the body as the abode of the soul; also, the abode of any animal.
1592. G. Harvey, Four Lett., iii. Wks. (Grosart), I. 195. The poore tennement of his Purse … hath bene the Diuels Dauncing schoole, anie time this halfe yeare.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, IV. ii. 136. Doubt not but selfe-loue and vanitie possesse the best tenement of his heart.
1635. Quarles, Embl., III. i. 40. My weary soul, that long hath been An inmate in this tenement of sin.
a. 1639. T. Carew, Epit. Lady M. Villiers, 2. The purest Soule that e’er was sent Into a clayie tenement.
a. 1668. Davenant, Jeffereidos, II. Wks. (1673), 226. Snaile … with all his Tenement on ’s back.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 371. Their nest is generally the original tenement of the squirrel.
1847. C. Brontë, J. Eyre, xxi. That spirit—now struggling to quit its material tenement.
1923. Improvement Era, XXVI. April, 504. Essentially what happens to the mortal tenement of the beast and the tree, happens also to man; just as a certain text in Ecclesiastes tells us.
4. spec. a. In England, A portion of a house, tenanted as a separate dwelling; a flat; a suite of apartments, or even a single room so let or occupied.
‘In modern Eng. practice, a tenement is anything that can be separately held, including therefore a flat, etc.’ (Sir F. Pollock).
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 53 b. Almes-houses … let out in Tenements.
1625. (May 2) Procl. 1 Chas. I. (Concerning Buildings). That no person … within the City of London … doe diuide any dwelling House … into or for any more Tenements or dwellings, then are at this present … vsed within the same.
1817. (April) D. Webster, Speech in Goodrich Case, U.S. (Cent. Dict.). The two tenements, it was true, were under the same roof; but they were not on that account the same tenements.
1898. Daily News, 14 Nov., 5/1. The Council never have any unlet, except a few four-room tenements for which there is less demand than for those with only two or three rooms. Ibid. (1905), 28 Sept., 9. Mr. J. Keir Hardie, M.P., claimed as occupier of a tenement at Nevill’s-court.
b. In Scotland, more particularly applied to a large house (i.e., edifice under one roof) constructed or adapted to be let in portions to a number of tenants, each portion so separately occupied being considered and called a ‘house.’ Called also tenement of houses, land of houses (= tenement house in 5).
Thus a ‘house’ in England may form one ‘tenement,’ or contain a number of ‘tenements’ (and is then a ‘tenement house’: see 5); in Scotland, a ‘tenement’ may form one ‘house,’ or contain a number of ‘houses’ or dwellings.
1693. Stair, Inst. Law Scot., II. vii. § 6. When divers Owners have parts of the same Tenement, it cannot be said to be a perfect division, because the Roof remaineth Roof to both, and the ground supporteth both.
1808. Jamieson, Tenement … often denoting a building which includes several separate dwellings; as a tenement of houses.
1825. R. Chambers, Tradit. Edinb., 172. How the great of the land could live in the fourth and fifth flats of wooden tenements, the various apartments of which, as occupied at present by humble mechanics, seem confined and inconvenient to the last degree.
1841. in Rankine, Treat. Ownership Lands Scot., xxxiii. (1879), 509. Houses so often found in Scotland, called technically ‘lands,’ or ‘tenements of land’—terms which have been defined as applicable to ‘a single or individual building, although containing several dwelling-houses, with, it may be, separate means of access, but under the same roof and enclosed by the same gables or walls.’
1910. Scotsman, 8 Oct., 3/3. For Sale by Public Roup … (1) Six self-contained Dwelling Houses…. (2) House, No. 27 St. Bernard’s Crescent…. (3) Tenement, No. 12 St. Bernard’s Crescent.
c. The offset at the back of a house. (Devon and Cornw.); cf. OUTSHOT 1, quots. 1817, 1820.
5. attrib. and Comb.: tenement house (orig. U.S.), a house or edifice let out in flats or sets of apartments for separate tenants; tenement householder, a tenant in a tenement house; † tenement man, an owner of tenements, a landlord.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., IX. iii. (1881), 405. To substitute for the *tenement house, homes surrounded by gardens.
1884. Q. Rev., Jan., 150. Tenement-houses, i.e. houses let to more than one family, are placed under still stricter conditions.
1890. Riis, How the Other Half Lives, ii. 17. It is one of the curses of the tenement-house system that the worst houses exercise a levelling influence upon all the rest, just as one bad boy in a schoolroom will spoil the whole class.
1894. Daily News, 7 June, 7/3. Mr. Gibb led the way in placing all lodgers who lived in a house in which no landlord resided, on the householders’ list…. *Tenement householders have ever since been regarded not as lodgers but as householders.
c. 1500. Merch. & Son, 7, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 133. He was a grete *tenement man, and ryche of londe and lede.
