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''primogeniture'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904120411-00-⌔

primogeniture - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

primogeniture (countable and uncountable, plural primogenitures)

  • The state of being the firstborn of the children of the same parents.
  • The principle that the eldest child has an exclusive right of inheritance.
    • ✤ On these grounds, I contend the mere possession of large property, which is all that primogeniture insures, is by no means a sufficient and unobjectionable qualification for a legislator.1
    • ✤ Anglo-Saxon kings did not succeed on the basis of primogeniture. All the kings offspring were known as aethelings — throneworthy — and from this gene pool the royal family would select the aetheling who seemed best qualified for the job.2
    • ✤ * Primogeniture acting as a law of inheritance in the case of intestacy applied in fact to all real property, however humble. Movables and personal property in this context were subject to equal division, the elder son inheriting all real property as well as his share of the personal property.*3
    • ✤ He writes as if he is the first privileged male to notice the unfairness of primogeniture (the “hierarchy”, as he likes to call it with sinister emphasis).4
  • (countable) An instance of such a right of inheritance, established by custom or law.
    • ✤ The King of Sardinia, by a decree of the 9th of Dec. has abolished—
      1. The prohibition against the erection of primogenitures and feudal rights, enacted by the 9th section of the edict of the 29th of July 1797, or by any other law; restricting, however, to those primogenitures and majorats only which shall be erected in favour of persons […].      5
    • ✤ All primogenitures, trusts, rights of presentation, and every other description of entail on real property, movables, or fixtures, rents, annuities, seigneuries, or of any other kind whatsoever, are suppressed, which are from henceforward restored to the class of absolutely free.6
    • ✤ The American system of land tenures, the abolition of entails and primogenitures, and our methods of transfer of real estate, are all anti-English in their origin.7

Etymology

From French, from Late Latin primogenitura, from Latin primus (“first”) + genitura (“birth”) (from genitus, past participle of gignere).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌprʌɪmə(ʊ)ˈdʒɛnɪtʃə/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

  1. 1835, Timothy Winterbottom, A Letter to Isaac Tomkins and Peter Jenkins on Primogeniture, 5th edition, page 7: ↩

  2. 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 165: ↩

  3. 2011, Zouheir Jamoussi, Primogeniture and Entail in England: A Survey of Their History and Representation in Literature ‎, page 10: ↩

  4. 2023 January 17, Tina Brown, “Spare by Prince Harry review – magical thinking in Montecito”, in The Guardian ‎: ↩

  5. 1818, The Annual Register for the Year 1817, volume 59, page 142: ↩

  6. 1860, American State Papers, page 704: ↩

  7. 1906, John Sergeant Wise, A Treatise on American Citizenship, published 1997, page 95: ↩

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