distress
noun
Distress — the legal seizure of property to secure payment of a debt
Definition
The seizure and holding of property as security for payment of a debt or satisfaction of a claim; "Originally distress was a landlord's remedy against a tenant for unpaid rents or property damage but now the landlord is given a landlord's lien"
In depth
Distress, in this specific legal sense, names the seizure and holding of property as security for the payment of a debt or the satisfaction of some other obligation, a traditional legal remedy allowing a creditor to take possession of a debtor's goods until the underlying debt is resolved. The word's far more common emotional sense, severe anxiety or suffering, shares an underlying root concerned with pressure and constraint.
Origin
The word descends from Old French destresse, constraint or hardship, ultimately from Latin distringere, to draw apart or constrain, formed from dis- (apart) and stringere (to draw tight). That shared root with constraint links both senses of the word, legal distress and emotional distress both conceived as a kind of tightening pressure exerted upon the person experiencing it.
Usage examples
"The landlord exercised distress against the tenant's property after months of unpaid rent."
"Historical records of distress proceedings reveal how routinely such seizures once occurred for even relatively modest debts."
"Modern law has largely replaced traditional distress with more formal judicial collection processes."
How to use it
Distress in this specific legal sense of seizing property to secure debt payment is largely historical or specialized vocabulary, mostly encountered in legal history or property law writing, distinct from the word's overwhelmingly more common emotional sense.
Related concepts
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