- entail
- mid-14c., "convert (an estate) into 'fee tail' (feudum talliatum)," from en- "make" + taile "legal limitation," especially of inheritance, ruling who succeeds in ownership and preventing it from being sold off, from Anglo-Fr. taile, from O.Fr. taillie, pp. of taillier "allot, cut to shape," from L.L. taliare. Sense of "have consequences" is 1829, from notion of "inseparable connection."