Noah Webster
Tenement
TEN'EMENT, noun [Low Latin tenementum, from teneo, to hold.]
1. In common acceptation, a house; a building for a habitation; or an apartment in a building, used by one family.
2. A house or lands depending on a manor; or a fee farm depending on a superior.
3. In law, any species of permanent property that may be held, as land, houses, rents, commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of common, a peerage, etc. These are called free or frank tenements.
The thing held is a tenement, and the possessor of it a tenant, and the manner of possession is called tenure.