mortmain
(en)
(noun) an inalienable possession of lands or buildings by an ecclesiastical or other corporation / (noun) the condition of property or other gifts left to a corporation in perpetuity especially for religious, charitable, or public purposes / (noun) the influence of the past regarded as controlling the present
the tradition handed down to the present by the 'progressive' epochs of the past was a set of compelling norms, a mortmain that literary legatees must honour on pain of disinheritance
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7 years, 2 months ago