Word Meanings and Court Documents

I was reading one of my old Illiana Genealogist Periodicals and I found this information:
Source:From the Illiana Genealogist, Summer 2003:
Official documents of all sorts are filled with words whose meanings may not be familiar to some folks. Genealogists, too, keep running into such words and have to know their meaning. Failure to do such can throw research off the track. For that reason, from time to time in these pages, list of "legal" and "official" words have appeared. Some of those lists have even concerned "foreign" words genealogists come across, while other listings concern our own country. So, again, we share a lot of terms used over the last several centuries here in our own country's courthouse and in other places, mostly British. (As written by John W. Heisey)

1. abstract: a summary of important parts of a legal or other document.
2. Affinity: the relationship of individuals to other people by marriage only, not by blood.
3. Ancillary: the describing of some legal action, like a will being probated when land is owned by the deceased in several different counties and states and must be disposed of in those other places.
4. Asset: any kind of property (real or personal) possessed by an individual living or dead.
5. Beneficiary: any individual who inherits or gets something from another person, usually because of the settlement of a deceased individual's estate.
6. Cenotaph: a monument to a deceased person, but not at the place where that person is buried.
7. Chattel: any property, other than real estate, which an individual possesses. Real chattels are tangible property, while personal chattels are intangible property.
8. Collateral Lines: (or branches): all persons who are related to you by blood, but not directly
9. Consanguinity: refers to any person who is descended from the same ancestor as you.
10. Descedent: any individual who is deceased, usually meaning a person who has recently died.
11. Epitaph: the working on a monument about the deceased, usually praising that individual.
12. Estate: everything owned or possessed by an individual who is either a live or deceased. Today, however, we usually think of an estate as belonging to someone who is deceased.
13. Executor (male) or Executrix (female): the individual who is designated in a will to carry out the actions directed by the writer of the will in settling up an estate.
14. Extract: information taken verbatim from any document, usually not the complete contents of that document.
15. Holographic Will: a will which was personally written, dated and signed in his or her own handwriting by an individual.
16. Inchoate Rights: in real estate, any interest or portion an individual is to inherit, but usually is not effective until the death of the spouse.
17. Instant: in early days it meant the current month.
18. Intangible Property: stocks, bonds, monies due, or other such items owned by an individual.
19. Intestate: term used to describe a deceased person who did not have a will.
20. Lien: a legal claim against a person's property or assets in order to pay for services done by that individual to someone else.
21. Litigation: the act of taking disputes to be settled in court.
22. Nuncupative Will: a will dictated orally by a dying person but written down and witnessed after the individual's death.
23. Outcry: a term used in earlier days to mean the public sale of property at an auction as directed by either the court or the owners of the property.
24. Per Stirpes: a Latin term meaning roots. Used in law to designate an individual inheriting something which would have been received by a parent or some other ancestor who is now deceased.
25. Personalty: any property, other than real estate, owned by some individual.
26.Primogeniture: the right of the first-born in a family to inherit the entire family estate and hereditary title.
27. Quit Claim: a document whereby an individual transfers or otherwise gives to someone else any right the owner has to some property.
28. Sibling: at the present time it refers to brothers and sisters only in a family. In earlier times, though, it meant any kinsman or relative.
29. Summary: a synopsis of a document which mentions only the important parts of that document. It need not by verbatim.
30. Surety: an assurance, usually a posted bond, given by an individual as a promise to carry out what has been directed legally.
31. Tangible Property: cattle, tools, household goods, anything except real estate, owned by an individual.
32. Testate: a legal term indicating a deceased person who had a will.
33. Tithable: any individual legally required to pay tithes.
34: Tithe: usually a 10 percent tax to be given to the church. In countries such as Britain, it was to be paid to the Church of England, the state church.
35. Title: a term which usually means that person has proof of ownership to some property.