purparty

English

Alternative forms

• pourparty, purpart

Etymology

From Old French porpartie, from por (“for”) and partie (“a part”). Compare Old French purpart (“a respective part”).

Noun

purparty (plural purparties)

1. (law) A share, part, or portion of an estate allotted to a coparcener.
   • 1793 October 6, Horace Walpole, letter to “the Miss Berrys” (sisters Mary and Agnes Berry),^[1]

     I am forced to eat all the game of your purparties, as well as my own thirds.

References

• “purparty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “purparty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)