Word: purchased
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Himself a dabbler in real estate, Shakespeare was fascinated with property jargon. He often speaks of "purchase"-a then new method of acquiring land by other means than inheritance. Henry IV reminds his son that the crown that "in me was purchas'd, falls upon thee in a more fairer sort" (Shakespeare's way of saying that the king usurped the crown). In The Merry Wives of Windsor, the devil holds Sir John Falstaff in "fee-simple" (complete ownership). In Troilus and Cressida, even Greeks and Trojans talk in terms of "fee-form" (tenure without limit). "Lease...