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Estates

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Estates of the realm. The powers that have the administration of affairs in their hands. The three estates of our own realm are the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons; popularly speaking, the public press is termed the fourth estate. It is a great mistake to call the three estates of England the Sovereign, the Lords, and the Commons, as many do. The word means that on which the realm stands. (Latin, sto, to stand.) (See Fourth Estate.)

“Herod … made a supper to his … chief estates.”—Mark vi. 21.


“The king and the three estates of the realm assembled in parliament.”—Collect for Nov. 5.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Esprit de Corps
Esprit Follet
Esquire
Essays
Essenes
Essex
Essex Lions
Essex Stile
Est-il-possible
Estafette (French; Spanish, estafeta)
Estates
Este
Estotiland
Estramaçon (French)
Estrich Wool
Estrildis
Estuary
Eternal City (The)
Eternal Fitness of Things
Eternal Tables
Etesian Wind (An)