tailzie

{{Short description|Concept in Scots law}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

In Scots law, tailzie ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|eɪ|l|i}}) is a feudal concept of the inheritance of immovable property according to an arbitrary course that has been laid out, such as in a document known as a "deed of tailzie". It was codified by the Entail Act 1685.

{{cite book

| last = Barclay

| first = Hugh

| title = A Digest of the Law of Scotland

| publisher = T. & T. Clark

| date = 1855

| location = Edinburgh

| pages = 955

| edition = 2nd

}}

{{cite book

| last1 = Shumaker

| first1 = Walter A.

| first2 = George Foster

| last2 = Longsdorf

| title = The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

| url = https://archive.org/details/cyclopediclawdi00longgoog

| edition = 2nd

| first3 = James C.

| last3 = Cahill

| year = 1922

| publisher = Callaghan and Company

| location = Chicago

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/cyclopediclawdi00longgoog/page/n1004 991]

}}

{{cite dictionary

| title = tailyie

| dictionary = Scottish National Dictionary

| year = 1974

| via = Dictionaries of the Scots Language

| url = https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/tailyie

|access-date=10 February 2025

| publisher = University of Glasgow

}}

Tailzie is similar to the common law concept of fee tail, as the "heir in tailzie" is entailed to the property. An "heir in tailzie" could not sell the property so inherited, except to the feu superior (that is, to the holder of the {{lang|la|dominum directum}} of the feu).

Other spellings of the word are tailie, taillie, tailze, tailyie, tailye, taylzie, teally, teilzie, telyie, teylyie tyle, talyee. It is derived from the Old French {{lang|fro|tailler}} 'to cut' and {{lang|fro|taille}} 'cutting'. The 'z' was, until the simplification of printing to 26 characters, a yogh (tailȝie) and so is not sounded.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgUfDgAAQBAJ&q=tailzie+pronounce&pg=PT186|title=Lord Kames: Selected Writings|first=Andreas|last=Rahmatian|date=31 January 2017|publisher=Andrews UK |isbn=9781845409296|via=Google Books}}{{nonspecific|date=February 2025}}