For example, if you name your daughter as the primary beneficiary on your life insurance policy and your son as the contingent beneficiary, your daughter receives the entire $100,000 if she is alive when you die, and your son receives nothing. If your daughter dies before you, your son receives the entire $100,000.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia. n purtenance Appurtenance; pertinents; belongings; the inwards or intestines of an animal: especially applied to the pluck, or the heart, liver, and lungs. n Purtenance purâ²ten-ans that which pertains or belongs to: n Purtenance purâ²ten-ans (B.) the inwards or intestines of an animal.
c.1300, an authoritative direction, decree, or command (narrower or more transitory than a law), from Old French ordenance (Modern French ordonnance) or directly from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from Latin ordinantem (nominative ordinans), present participle of ordinare put in order (see ordain).