appropriation

[In Fr. appropria tion; Sp. a prop i a cion; Port. appropriação ; Ital. appropriazione ; Lat. appropriatio .] [APPROPRIATE, ν.] A. Ordinary Language: I. The act of appropriating. 1. Lit. The act of taking that to one's self which one previously held in common with others, or of applying anything to a special purpose. "The first of these modes of appropriation, by the government, is characteristic of the extensive monarchies which from a time beyond historic record have occupied the plains of Asia. -J. S. Mill : Pol. Econ., Prelim. Remarks, p. 14. 2. Fig .: The act of mentally a igning to a general idea a limited or specific meaning. "The mind should have distinct ideas of the things, and retain the particular name, with its peculiar ap propria tion to that idea."-Locke. II. The state of being appropriated. III. That which is appropriated. and thus were most, if not all, the appro- existing, originally made, heing -Black stone : priations at present existing. annexed to bishoprics, prebends Comment., ok. ii., ch. 11. B. Technically ( Law ): 1. The transference to a religious house, or spiritual corporation, of the tithes and other endowments designed for the support of religious ordinances in a parish; also these when transferred. When the monastic bodies were in their glory in the Middle Ages, they begged, or bought for ma es and obits, or in some cases even for actual money, all the advowsons which they could get into their hands. In obtaining these they came under the obligation either to present a clergyman to the church, or minister there in holy things themselves. They generally did the latter, and applied the surplus to the support and aggrandisement of their order. On the suppre ion of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., the appropriated advowsons were transferred to the king, and were ultimately sold or granted out to laymen, since called impropria tors. (Black stone: Comment., bk. i., ch. 11.) 2. Appropriation of payments: The application by a creditor of money received from a debtor who owes him several accounts to that particular one which he (the creditor) thinks fit to reduce or liquidate.