If you go to an “estate sale”, you’ll generally find that everything not nailed down is being sold.

What will remain, that can’t be carted off or removed, is the “real” estate. The land itself, the permanent structures.

It’s why a house sale includes a bunch of information about things like appliances, mineral rights, the things that are being included that arent “real” components of the property, because they could conceivably be removed prior to closing, because purchasing “real estate” doesn’t automatically include those things inherently, and you want all the estate that isn’t “real property” to be codified.

Estate sale vs “real estate” sale, is the basic difference.

It relates to “real” (physical, tangible, immovable or inseparable) property pertaining to land. In other words land plus buildings and resources attached to it. It contrasts with personal property and intellectual property.

In English common law, real property is distinguished from “chattel” (aka personal property, movable property in various jurisdictions.) Based on my reading of the Wikipedia page of it when you sell your farm, you leave the building and land there which becomes the new owner’s, but you bring along your cattle with you which remains yours. This distinction between real property and other property persists to today. In Canada (with some possible exceptions in Quebec and special areas), real property consists of land, buildings on the land, and anything permanently affixed to them. Tangible personal peroperty consists of things, goods, material, livestock and more. Intangible personal property are things that don’t have a physical manifestation but you can still own and sell, such as a patent or license.

That’s a whole discussion, but the gist is the real part of real estate comes from this. The French immobilier and the Japanese 不動産 discuss real estate directly as a trade/industry dealing with un-movable things.

In terms of law, real relates to land property and is different from personal property while estate means the “interest” a person has in that land property. -Wikipedia

In French is called “immobilier” which can literally translate to “immobile” or “immobileable”.

I suppose in English is “real” estate because it’s the only part of your estate or of all your property that is actually “real”. Since your property can be on paper as well.

The root of the word ‘real’ is effectively ‘royal’. In previous times a king or queen would be the one granting or withdrawing ownership of lands. It’s trickled down from that, basically.

The fact it’s called that is unreal

To distinguish from those “fake estate”.

No, I don’t know the answer but it reminded me of the slogan that Gob comes up with, “a Colombian cartel that WON’T kidnap and kill you.”