Forms: 6 ioynt tenaunt, ioyntenaunt(e, iointenaunte, 7 joyntenant, joyn-tenant, 7–8 jointenant; 7 joynt-tenant, 8– joint-tenant, joint tenant. [f. JOINT a. + TENANT.] One who holds an undivided estate in the same right jointly with another or others, with a jus accrescendi, whereby the interest of each passes at his death to the survivors or survivor, till the whole remains in a single hand.
This right of survivorship distinguishes joint-tenants from tenants in common.
1531. Dial. on Laws Eng., II. xxv. 55. The ioynt tenaunt hathe ryght to the hole goodes.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 57 a. If two or three disseise another of anye landes … to theire owne use, then the disseisoures be iointenauntes.
1659. Termes de la Ley, s.v., If one Joyntenant grant that which belongs to him to a Stranger, then the other Joyntenant and the Stranger are Tenants in common.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. xii. 184. While it [the joint-tenancy] continues, each of two joint-tenants has a concurrent interest in the whole; and therefore, on the death of his companion, the sole interest in the whole remains to the survivor.
fig. 1621. Quarles, Div. Poems, Esther (1638), 91. These brave ioyntenants that surviv’d To see a little world of men unliv’d. Ibid. (1645), Sol. Recant., viii. 23. Nay, Heaven and Hel May sooner … turn Joynt-tenants in one perfect Line.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 152. In nature’s state … Man walked with beast, joint-tenant of the shade.
So Joint-tenancy, the holding of an estate by two or more joint-tenants.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 364. The writ abating for some cause that cannot be imputed to the Plaintifes folly: as for … Ioyntenancie, and such like.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. xii. 179. An estate in joint-tenancy is where lands or tenements are granted to two or more persons, to hold in fee-simple, fee-tail, for life, for years, or at will.
1844. Williams, Real Prop., vi. (1875), 132. Any estate may be held in joint tenancy.
