Freedom won Freedom lent Freedom gone Freedom spent -Anonymous What’s All This Now? Yes, another essay with a funky word in the title. Desuetude is a word, with its main application in law, that means “a state of disuse”. In law it has an application in that property can become so unused and maintained that the owner’s rights lapse and the property can be forfeit. This can even be applied to statutes, that can lapse and be unenforceable.