APAD: Possession is nine points of the law

Meaning:

 

The person who has physical control of a property has an advantage over anyone

claiming rightful ownership.

 

Background:

 

Other variations (all considered correct): Possession is nine points of the law

(nine parts of the law, nine-tenths of the law etc).

 

Possession is nine-tenths of the law is not a law at all, merely a truism of

human nature - that the person who actually holds the item, land or whatever, is

in a stronger position than any claimant.

 

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I recently learned one meaning of the noun 'preemption': The right to purchase

something before others, especially the right to purchase public land that is

granted to one who has settled on that land. It invokes the picture of pioneers

pushing to the American West in the early days. After years of hard work,

bushwhacking, clearing, building, and farming, it was only fit to allow the

family to buy the land before anyone else.

understand what you are saying, I just feel sorry for

those nomadic natives who were here much earlier and longer than the early european settlers ... ...

 

Indeed. Two stories collided and the more adaptable survived

Thanks for the word “bushwhack“ and this APAD!

Thank you. I could've said 'prospecting.'

That's Y Israel pushed Israeli settlement where Palestine cl

claims its sovereignty

It felt like it. Good point.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush～

Considering that first feathered friend was caught dear :-)

“was caught dear”是神马意思？不懂

missing punctuation

dear: adverb, At high cost.

The first caught feathered bird is considered the dearest？

查了一下，it is British English

It’s in the American Heritage Dictionary.

Good example!