verb
premise
A statement accepted as the basis of an argument; in the plural, land and buildings.
Where it comes from
Premise ordinarily means a statement accepted as the basis of an argument; in the plural, land and buildings. Premise came through French from Medieval Latin praemissa, something put before, from Latin praemittere, to send or place before. In logic, a premise is a proposition set before a conclusion; in legal documents, the premises were matters already stated. Deeds stated the land and buildings near the beginning, then referred back to those previously mentioned things as the premises.
How the meaning developed
Readers transferred the label from the document's earlier words to the property they described.
Sources
- American Heritage Dictionary Entry: Premise
- Premise: Etymology, Origin & Meaning
- Premise Definition & Meaning
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-10-05. Report a correction.