Estate Once Meant Your Rank in Society
An estate is land, property or a condition. The word meant social standing, and France had three of them before the revolution.
An estate is a large area of land, a person's property at death, or a condition or state. The original meaning was social rank: pre-revolutionary France had Three Estates — clergy, nobility and commoners — and the press became known as the *fourth estate* because it sat outside them all and wielded comparable influence.
- Land and property. *A country estate.*
- A person's assets at death. *Administering the estate.*
- A housing development. *A council estate.*
- A condition. *The estate of marriage.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | estate | A landed estate. |
| Plural | estates | Two estates. |
| Compound | estate agent | A local estate agent. |
| Compound | estate car | A family estate car. |
| Related | state | Affairs of state. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The press is the fourth estate.Outside the traditional three.
- An estate car has a long rear.American: station wagon.
- Estate agents in Britain, realtors in America.Same profession.
The estates of the realm
- First Estate — the clergy
- Second Estate — the nobility
- Third Estate — everyone else, the vast majority
- Fourth Estate — the press, a later addition
- Estates-General — the French assembly of all three, summoned in 1789
From Old French *estat*, from Latin *status*, condition or standing. *State* is the same word arriving directly from Latin.
Why is the press the fourth estate?
Because it constituted a power outside the recognised three orders of society. The phrase is usually attributed to Edmund Burke.
Are estate and state the same word?
Yes, arriving twice. Estate came through French, state directly from Latin *status*.