Etymology

In law, the word real means relating to a thing (from Latin res/rei, thing), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between "real" property (land and anything affixed to it) and "personal" property (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. (The word is not derived from the notion of land having historically been "royal" property. The word royal—and its Portuguese cognate real—come from the related Latin word rex-regis, meaning king.)


British, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish usages of the term

In British usage, however, “real property”, often shortened to just “property”, refers rather to land and fixtures as such while the term “real estate” is used mostly in the context of probate law, and means all interests in land held by a deceased person at death excluding interests in money arising under a trust for sale of or charged on land.[1]

In French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, real estate is called "immovables" (French: immobilier, Italian: immobiliare, Portuguese: imóvel and Spanish: inmueble); other property is called "movables" (French: mobilier and Spanish: mueble).