borough English

noun

Patrilineal ultimogeniture; inheritance by the youngest surviving male child.

Meanings

nounborough English (uncountable)
  1. UKhistoricaluncountablelawPatrilineal ultimogeniture; inheritance by the youngest surviving male child.

    the great variety of customs affecting many of these tenements so held in ancient burgage, the principal and most remarkable of which is that called Borough English

    1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC
    1 more example

    The distribution of Borough English or ultimogeniture in England was roughly as follows. The custom extenhded along the whole line of the "Saxon Shore" from the Wash to the neighbourhood of the Solent, including the whole of the south-eastern counties.

    1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 434

    Synonyms: junior right

Synonyms & antonyms

nounPatrilineal ultimogeniture; inheritance by the youngest surviving male child.

Also see
Cite this entry
APA

borough English. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borough%20English

MLA

“borough English.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borough%20English. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “borough English,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borough%20English.

Source: borough English on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.