Estate

[ih-steyt] /ɪˈsteɪt/

noun
1.
a piece of landed property, especially one of large extent with an elaborate house on it:
to have an estate in the country.
2.
Law.

3.
British. a housing development.
4.
a period or condition of life:
to attain to man’s estate.
5.
a major political or social group or class, especially one once having specific political powers, as the clergy, nobles, and commons in France or the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons in England.
6.
condition or circumstances with reference to worldly prosperity, estimation, etc.; social status or rank.
7.
Obsolete. pomp or state.
8.
Obsolete. high social status or rank.
verb (used with object), estated, estating.
9.
Obsolete. to establish in or as in an estate.
/ɪˈsteɪt/
noun
1.
a large piece of landed property, esp in the country
2.
(mainly Brit) a large area of property development, esp of new houses or (trading estate) of factories
3.
(property law)

4.
Also called estate of the realm. an order or class of persons in a political community, regarded collectively as a part of the body politic: usually regarded as being the lords temporal (peers), lords spiritual, and commons See also States General, fourth estate
5.
state, period, or position in life, esp with regard to wealth or social standing: youth’s estate, a poor man’s estate
n.

early 13c., “rank, standing, condition,” from Anglo-French astat, Old French estat “state, position, condition, health, status, legal estate” (Modern French état), from Latin status “state or condition,” from root of stare “to stand” from PIE root *sta- “to stand” (see stet).

For initial e-, see especial. Sense of “property” is late 14c., from that of “worldly prosperity;” specific application to “landed property” (usually of large extent) is first recorded in American English 1620s. A native word for this was Middle English ethel (Old English æðel) “ancestral land or estate, patrimony.” Meaning “collective assets of a dead person or debtor” is from 1830.

The three estates (in Sweden and Aragon, four) conceived as orders in the body politic date from late 14c. In France, they are the clergy, nobles, and townsmen; in England, originally the clergy, barons, and commons, later Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and commons. For Fourth Estate see four.