turbary

Inherited from Middle English turbarie, from Anglo-Norman turberie and its etymon Medieval Latin turbāria, from turba (“turf”), from Proto-West Germanic *turb; compare turf.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɜː(ɹ)bəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

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turbary (countable and uncountable, plural turbaries)

1. A piece of peatland from which turf may be cut for fuel.
   • 1970, Heðin Brú, translated by John F. West, The Old Man and his Sons, Telegram, published 2011, page 161:

     ‘But remember this, it doesn't pay to set yourself against me, because I own both the infield and the turbary in the village, and without my leave, you'll get neither milk nor fuel.’

2. Material extracted from a turbary.
3. The right to cut turf from a turbary on a common or in some cases, another person's land.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     It seemed to have been generally understood that the lord could not approve, where the commoners had a right of turbary, piscary, of digging sand, or of taking any species of estovers upon the common.

The third sense is more fully expressed legally as common of turbary.

• (right) profit à prendre