OneLook's Word of the Day today is purlieu.

when I looked it up at M-W, the etymology surprised me, as(based upon its spelling) it seems to be a French word. (or that could just be my ignorance...)

Main Entry: pur·lieu
Pronunciation: 'p&rl-(")yü, 'p&r-(")lü
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English purlewe land severed from an English royal forest by perambulation, from Anglo-French puralé perambulation, from Old French puraler to go through, from pur- for, through + aler to go -- more at PURCHASE
1 a : an outlying or adjacent district b plural : ENVIRONS, NEIGHBORHOOD
2 a : a frequently visited place : HAUNT b plural : CONFINES, BOUNDS

how did it arrive at its current spelling?

For heaven's sake, eta, how fascinating; I wish it gave a few more details, such as how many times a section had to be walked before it became a purlieu.

By comparison:
mi·lieu ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ml-y, m-ly)
n. pl. mi·lieus or mi·lieux (-ly)
An environment or a setting.

[French, from Old French, center : mi, middle (from Latin medius. See medhyo- in Indo-European Roots) + lieu, place (from Latin locus).] (AHD) Also AHD:

pur·lieu ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pûrly, pûrl)
n.
1. An outlying or neighboring area.
2. purlieus Outskirts; the environs.
3. A place that one frequents.

[Middle English purlewe, piece of land on the edge of a forest, probably alteration (influenced by Old French lieu, place), of porale, purale, royal perambulation from Old French porale, from poraler, to traverse : por-, forth (from Latin pr-. See pro-1) + aler, aller, to go; see alley1.]

purlieu.
What a great word.
Next time I have to talk to the Planning Board, yahoooo!

Re: Middle English purlewe land severed from an English royal forest by perambulation, from Anglo-French puralé perambulation, from Old French puraler to go through, from pur- for, through + aler to go -- more at PURCHASE

this is a little piece of common law that has passed away--(but it was also done in New England and in NY)

at certain intervales, owners were required to 'walk a boundry'. since deeds might mark that one person owned the land marked by the stream, and the oak tree, and bounded by church yard, etc..

the owners would walk the boundry, and make certain the stream hadn't gone dry, (or changed course) or otherwise changed, and when the oak tree died, or was hit by lightening, or some other calamity, a new 'boundry' point would be established.

by walking a boundry (and this is especially important in england) you could check and make sure that easements, or rights of way were not established, as well as make certain, where the boundry was.

fields and (now city plots!) all over england are encumbered with right of way easements..

people established shortcuts and made paths across a fields (or 'parks' as some country estates were called) and these paths are protected forever, once established, they can't be undone.
regularlly walking the boundry, could check to see were paths and shortcuts were being created, and the other could prevent them from becoming established (in law)

(as a recall, it takes 7 years adn a day of unencumbered access to be come established in old common law--but i could be wrong.)

NYC Law is that private streets, that permit public access, must be closed at least one day each year, or they become public access ways. (Rockefeller Center has several--and they all get closed several times a year!)

Huh... puts me in mind of a story I heard out wine tasting last fall...

http://www.witnesstreevineyard.com/Home.html

(Scroll down for the story & picture of the magnificent tree - and FWIW, their pinots are excellent. The dessert wine rocks my world over vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries. Mmmmm... [licking chops-e])

that's a nice tree. and thanks for the info, Helen.

but I'm still curious as to how this ended up with a French spelling. milieu, and banlieue I see, because they came from French words, but purlieu?

Peggy told me that one of the things she hated about real estate law was having to walk the boundaries of certain properties that were being sold. I'll check with her when she gets up to see what the conditions were, but occasionally she as the attorney doing title work would have to physically walk the boundaries, going from the bottle cap nailed in the center line of the road due southeast to the blasted oak, etc. She ran into rabid dogs, water moccasins, and skunks. Of course ALL attorneys run into skunks.

This lengthy piece gives some idea of the work of a Public Rights of Way Officer in England and Wales – things may be different in Scotland and N Ireland – they generally are!

In 1950 County Councils and parishes surveyed all their Rights of Way and came up with a definitive map. This became the legal document. There are three and a half thousand miles of Rights of Way in Devon and Devon County Council were meant to review the map every five years. They tried to do so but were unable to because of lack of funding.

" My brief is to review the Definitive map of Public Rights of Way," says Erica Eden, Public Rights of Way Officer. "It was a job that arose out of legislation".

Erica’s area is North Devon. She works with Parish Councils and members of the public. She starts by holding a public meeting and asking for proposals for changes to the Definitive Map.

"Members of the public acquire a Right of Way by using it for a long enough period, generally at least twenty years without the landowner showing a lack of intention to dedicate by preventing use or putting signs up. Conflict may arise, for instance, if the land changes hands and the new owner puts up a gate and locks it, so the Definitive Map is checked and if the route is not shown or is shown, for example, as a footpath instead of bridleway, the County Council is approached to settle the dispute. My job is to look at the evidence and see whether a public right of way has been acquired. This is a different job to that of maintaining paths and clearing obstructions such as barbed wire – that’s the ranger’s job. I deal with the principles as laid down by the law.

"So I will check historical records, such as parish minutes and tithe maps and examine evidence provided by users and landowners. Then I write a report for the Councillors who are on the Public Rights of Way Committee.

"My recommendations are not based on opinion, they are based on whether the public has acquired a right and therefore whether a route should be recorded on the Definitive Map."

Erica has to carefully analyse all the evidence for her report because the Committee's decisions often result in public enquiries, where Erica has to present the evidence as County Council’s expert witness.

Once the County Council has made an order, that’s it, and Erica must defend it regardless of whether her recommendation differed from the decision.

"It’s very interesting and wide ranging work," says Erica. "I like historical research and dealing with people and I know I am good at analysing and understanding law. It can be stressful and it can be confrontational! However I believe I am good at explaining things and I am always straight with people."

re:Peggy told me that one of the things she hated about real estate law was having to walk the boundaries of certain properties that were being sold.

this is done less and less.. as a property changes hands now, the boundries are marked with GSP points or other more permenent land markers.. (but if a property hasn't changed owners, or there is a dispute, i am sure its still done!)

and DXB thanks for the info on rights of way. the time it takes to establish one is much shorter(generally) in US-- as i said, it only take 1 year in some cases in NYC! (paved roads have very short times.)

and its short elsewhere in NY. by law, there are no private beaches in NY-well, the area of land between the highest tide (of the year) and lowest tide are public property. but the land next to the beach can be owned.

in places like the *hamptons, there are a few (very few!) right of way paths to the beach. You can walk along them, and get to pristine private beaches, but you have to park you blanket close to the waters edge, and know a tide schedule. --and there are no lifeguards on duty.

it doesn't take too many years for new rights of way to be established, so land owners in the hamptons are very particular about fences, and trespassers.
(LI's south shore is a continuation of the US East coast beaches. starting at about cape cod in MA (i, know Wow, NH has a 1/4 mile or so.. but maine has a reputation for a rocky coast line) and continuing down all the way to florida, with some patches being incredible beautiful) Most of the east coast enjoys deep sandy beaches. some states have created parks and public access areas for miles, in other states, the beaches are largely private --and you have to pay for the use.

NY and NJ have large swaths of public beaches,and so does Florida, i don't know about virgina (about 200 miles of beach area along the coast) or other states.
(Coney island is public beach in NYC, and perhaps the best known LI/atlantic beach, but Long island is about 110 miles long, and has about 100 miles of beach! ) about half is public-some of the public beaches are town owned, some county owned, some are state owned. some is 'developed' (parking lots, boardwalks, and bathrooms, lifeguards, too) lots is undeveloped. (natural dunes, wild life, no facilites, and no lifeguards)

town's and county's do sometimes limit use to town or county residents, but state beaches are open to everyone.
*the hamptons (east, south and west, and some other close by towns are the beach playground for the rich and famous.)

As a surveyor for the Gas company, one of my jobs was to walk over all our easements at least once each year. As some of these ran through beautiful countryside to which I wold not usually have access, this could be a wonderful day out.

In Québec, if you own a property, it's yours, and if you choose to block access then it's your right. There are only a few exceptions to this. In some parts of the province, there are still some people that get their water from a public well. If the well is on private property, the property owner has to allow access to the well. The well, and the path to it, are appropriated by the province and do not belong to the owner.

Well, around here we have what is called easement rights, giving us the right to cross our neighbor's property. The lovely AnnaS and I couldn't get to our house without either easement rights or a long slog up a steep hill and through barely penetrable woods.

purlieu ... how did it arrive at its current spelling?

Circumlocutions, I suspect, Etaoin.

It wore a path in the vernacular.

When we had a rural property in New Zealand, our water came from a spring that was on our neighbour's property. There was a lien on the neighbour's deeds to that effect (dunno the legalese here, so don't shoot me over the words). This was an absolute right. Effectively we "owned" the access to that spring and the land over which the pipeline ran (about 15 metres from our boundary). It also meant that we could fence the spring itself off (which had been done by a previous owner). Since we did NOT get on with our neighbour, I'm glad there were no problems with the spring during the three years we were there!