Forest Called Property Land Royal Anglo French Purlieu Perl Yoo

noun

1. A neighboring area.

2. A place that one frequents or has control; haunt.

[In medieval England if you were fortunate enough to acquire a new piece of land, you might hold a ceremony called a "perambulation," in which you would walk around and record the boundaries of your property in the presence of witnesses. If your land bordered a royal forest, there might be some confusion about where your land started and the royal forest ended. Luckily, the law said that if you performed a perambulation, you could gain at least some degree of ownership over disputed forest tracts, although your use of them would be restricted by forest laws and royals would probably still have the right to hunt on them. Such regained forest property was called a "purlewe" (or as it was later spelled, "purlieu"), which derives from the Anglo-French word for "perambulation."

From Middle English purlewe (land on the edge of a forest), from puralee, influenced by Old French lieu (place), from Anglo-French pur- (thoroughly) + aler (to go). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around), which is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, bivouac, and obambulate. Earliest documented use: 1483.]

"Dr Vince Cable remains in his post, though with this particular issue removed from his purlieu." - Simon Heffer; Cameron Punishes Tories; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Dec 22, 2010.