serendipidous --> freeholder

[Joel S. Berson]

I'm more interested in "freeholder" below.  In my experience (17th
and 18th centuries), a freeholder was someone who owned real property
(in "freehold estate").  But the below passage seems to attach some
meaning to "freeholder" that eludes me.  Being a freeholder seems
very unrelated to the reason for removal, which I gather is having
been placed in the wrong position (although it's not clear to me
whether the passage means on on the ballot for or in the count of the
final election).

Being a freeholder used to qualify one to vote and hold office, but
it's hard for me to believe that there is such a real property
requirement in any county in NJ today.  (In any case, that still
seems unrelated to the reason for removal.)

But perhaps I'm wrong -- after all, there is "Housewives of New Jersey".

Joel

At 2/8/2012 03:54 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>I see this as an odd use of serendipidous--others might disagree. But
>let me get to the point.
>
>A NJ Appeals Court has removed a "freeholder" from the county board
>because of a previous judicial screwup that placed her above another
>Republican candidate who had beaten her in the primary (albeit by a
>small margin). The county is heavily Republican, so the presumption has
>been all along that the winner of the primary would win the election
>(she did). So now that she's been removed, there will have to be a
>nominating convention to place someone in her office, then another
>primary and another general election in November, in order to fill the
>remainder of her term. Her response:
>
>http://goo.gl/6K3GY
>>"One thing I've learned is that politics is a very serendipitous
>>business," Nordstrom said. "My understanding right now is that I'm not
>>a freeholder. You have to take it in stride. I'm taking it one step at
>>a time."
>
>Why "serendipitous"? How is this a happy coincidence? Did she simply
>mean "unexpected"? Then why use the big words?
>
>     VS-)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org