this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
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[–] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

After reading all your comments, i want to comment something myself:

Reality, as i see it, comes from the latin word "res", often literally translated as thing. However, i want to propose a slightly related, but different origin of the word. It does indeed come from latin "res", which again comes from latin "rex", which means king. Let me explain:

I'm not so sure about roman law specifically, but under medieval law, property could in theory be owned by anyone, but in practice, specific types of property (namely land property especially, and often mines (and minerals) and later in early modern age right to exert military actions) were mostly only owned by feudal lords (which represent the ruler, replacing the king). Thus "reality" are the things that belong to the kings and feudal lords. There's also a similar word that discusses this more explicitly: "regalities" (kingly rights).

Therefore land geometry (how big a grain field is), minerals (and metals derived thereof) and for some reason, the military, are real, while things like typical "personal" property (related: personal property article) like clothing, food products (especially vegetable harvests, which were not taxed by the king) and various movable utensils are not real, because they could be owned by anyone and were not considered "typical ruler's things".