entail

Etymology 1

From Middle English entaillen, from Old French entaillier, entailler (“to notch”, literally “to cut in”); from prefix en- + tailler (“to cut”), from Late Latin taliare, from Latin talea. Compare late Latin feudum talliatum (“a fee entailed, i.e., curtailed or limited”).

verb

1. (transitive) To imply, require, or invoke.
   This activity will entail careful attention to detail.
2. (transitive) To settle or fix inalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants or a certain line of descendants; -- said especially of an estate; to bestow as a heritage.
   1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England Allowing them to entail their estates.
   Apparently, Henry VII visited the city [Bristol] in 1487, "taking care to entail a sumptuary fine on the citizens because their wives dressed too gaudily". January 11 2023, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 55
3. (transitive, obsolete) To appoint hereditary possessor.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To cut or carve in an ornamental way.

Etymology 2

From Middle English entaille (“carving”), from Old French entaille (“incision”), from the verb entailler. See above.

noun

1. That which is entailed.
   1. An estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of issue.
   2. The rule by which the descent is fixed.
      All land acquired by inheritance must follow the Khasi law of entail, by which property descends from the mother to the youngest daughter, and again from the latter to her youngest daughter. 1907, Philip Richard Thornhagh Gurdon, The Khasis, page 88
2. (obsolete) Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.