Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The right to the use and profits of something belonging to another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In law, the right of enjoying all the advantages derivable from the use of something which belongs to another so far as is compatible with the substance of the thing not being destroyed or injured.
  • To hold in usufruct; subject to a right of enjoyment of its advantages by one while owned by another.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Law) The right of using and enjoying the profits of an estate or other thing belonging to another, without impairing the substance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun law The legal right to use and derive profit or benefit from property that belongs to another person, as long as the property is not damaged.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a legal right to use and derive profit from property belonging to someone else provided that the property itself is not injured in any way

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin ūsūfrūctus, variant of Latin ūsusfrūctus : ūsus, use; see usual + frūctus, enjoyment; see fruit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin usufructus, from Latin ūsus et fructus (use and enjoyment), cognate to English use and fruit.

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Examples

  • The term usufruct refers to the right to use and enjoy something that belongs to another person when it extends beyond their property.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • The term usufruct refers to the right to use and enjoy something that belongs to another person when it extends beyond their property.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • The term usufruct refers to the right to use and enjoy something that belongs to another person when it extends beyond their property.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • I suggested in an ironic post that, when Mann told the House Energy and Commerce Committtee that the code was his personal property as opposed to the property of the university over which he had what we can now put the term usufruct, this was an act of tortious conversion – a rather amusing incident of conversion, but one which met the legal definitions of the tort.

    Hansen and the "Destruction of Creation" « Climate Audit 2007

  • I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self evident, “that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living;” that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Change I Can Believe In 2010

  • Well, if she were to retire into a convent, taking vows of celibacy and poverty, then what they call the usufruct of her properties could be settled upon her heir presumptive for her lifetime, the properties themselves passing to him at her death. "

    The Lady Paramount Henry Harland 1883

  • Last week's term was usufruct, which is defined as:

    Legal Definitions 2008

  • Last week's term was usufruct, which is defined as:

    Define That Term #289 2008

  • Last week's term was usufruct, which is defined as:

    Sui Generis--a New York law blog: 2008

  • Perfect usufruct, which is of things which the usufructuary can enjoy without altering their substance, though their substance may be diminished or deteriorated naturally by time or by the use to which they are applied; as a house, a piece of land, animals, furniture and other movable effects.

    Hansen and the "Destruction of Creation" « Climate Audit 2007

Comments

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  • sounds like a dirty word.

    June 11, 2009

  • Dude, you are so fruct.

    June 13, 2009

  • You own all its practical uses;

    Your portion is all it produces.

    As legal construct

    This odd usufruct

    Resembles the old emphyteusis.

    April 23, 2019