leptodermous

Pronounced: lep-tuh-DUHR-muhs, adj

Notes: I thought this was someone related to butterflies (nope!)

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Yesterday’s word

The word hereditament means “heritable property”

First usage

The word showed up in the mid-1400s

Background / Comments

You can see what looks like a noun form of “heredity” in this word. As you might expect, it comes from Medieval Latin hērēditāmentum, which in turn was derived from the Late Latin hērēditāre. It originally referred to any property capable of being inherited. Today, in legal usage, it tends to be restricted to land and real property, although hereditaments are divided further into “corporeal” (buildings) and “incorporeal” (easements and rents).