USUS

Lat. In Roman law. A precarious enjoyment of land, corresponding with the right of habitatio of houses, and being closely analogous to the tenancy at sufferance or at will of English law. The usuarius (i.e. tenant by usus) could only hold on so long as the owner found him convenient, and had to go so soon as ever he was in the owner’s way, (motestus.) The usuarius could not have a friend to share the produce. It was scarcely permitted to him (Justinian says) to have even his wife with him on the land; and he could not let or sell, the right being strictly personal to himself. Brown.