Definition of Appurtenant

Belonging to; accessory or incident to; adjunct, appended or annexed to; answering to accessorium in the civll law. 2 Steph. Comm. 30 note. A thing is deemed to be incidental or appurtenant to land when it is by right used with the land for its benefit, as in the case of a way, or water-course, or of a passage for light, air, or heat from or across the land of another. Civil Code Cal. § 662. In common speech, appurtenant denotes annexed or belonging to; but in law it denotes an annexation which is of convenience merely and not of necessity, and which may have had its origin at any time, in both which respects it is distinguished from appendant, (q v.)