fief

English

WOTD – 23 May 2016

An inhabited initial from a late-13th-century French text, Li Livres dou Santé, representing the social order of the Middle Ages: the ōrātōrēs (those who pray – clerics), bellātōrēs (those who fight – knights, that is, the nobility), and labōrātōrēs (those who work – peasants)

Etymology

From Middle French fief, from Old French fief, from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum (whence also Old French fieu, fied), from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Doublet of fee and feud.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiːf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːf

Noun

fief (countable and uncountable, plural fiefs)

1. (law, historical) Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
   • 1673, Randle Cotgrave, “Fief”, in A French and English Dictionary, London: Anthony Dolle, →OCLC:

     Fief: m[asculine] A Fief. A (Knights) fee, a Mannor, or inheritance held by homage, and fealty; and given at the firſt, in truſt, and upon promiſe of aſſiſtance, or ſervice in the wars: […] Alſo, a Tenure, or Eſtate in fief, or in fee. This word was firſt heard of, after the conqueſt of Gallia by the Francs (or ancient French-men) when their Soveraign Princes, reſerving ſome land for their own Domains, diſtributed the reſt (by whole Countreys, or large territories) among their Captains, and principal followers, on condition, that they ſhould hold of them, and aid them in their wars […]

   • 1840 June 8, C[harles] Poulett Thomson, “An Ordinance to incorporate the Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal [No. 164 of 1840]”, in Copy of Ordinances Passed by the Governor and Special Council of Lower Canada, in the Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (Accounts and Papers. United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Commons; 1841, session 1), volume XV, published 3 February 1841, →OCLC, pages 151–152:

     And be it further ordained and enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the Right and Title of the said Ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal, in and to all and singular the said Fiefs and Seigniories of the Island of Montreal, of the Lake of the Two Mountains, and of Saint Sulpice, and their several Dependencies, and in and to all Seigniorial and Feudal Rights, Privileges, Dues, and Duties arising out of and from the same, and in and to all and every the Domains, Lands, Reservations, Buildings, Messuages, Tenements, and Hereditaments within the said several Fiefs and Seigniories now held and possessed by them as Proprietors thereof, […] shall be and they are hereby confirmed and declared good, valid, and effectual in the Law; […]

   • 1992, Franz [Carl Heinrich] Babinger, translated by Ralph Manheim, edited by William C. Hickman, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (Bollingen Series; XCVI), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 446:

     The chief obligation of a sipahi was to take up residence on his fief and to be prepared at all times to rally, armed for battle, to his banner-holder's flag on the sultan's order. According to the income of his fief, every sipahi had to raise a fixed number of armed horsemen (cebeli), who followed him on campaigns.

   • 1995, Constance B. Bouchard, edited by William W. Kibler et al., Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities; 932), New York, N.Y., London: Garland Publishing, →ISBN, page 660:

     By the 14th century, however, fief holding was in decline, as salaries and retainer fees, rather than fiefs, became standard for aristocrats in binding their knights to them, and as kings increasingly exercised royal power directly or through judges and bureaucrats, not through dukes and counts. Fief holding, which is what "feudalism" must be considered to mean if the term has any precise meaning at all—and what the term meant when it was coined in the 17th century—had become an insignificant part of social and governmental relations by the end of the Middle Ages.

   • 2001, “Law IX. For What Offenses Committed Against His Lord a Vassal Loses His Fief, and Also How the Lord Loses the Ownership of It if He Commits an Offense Against His Vassal.”, in Samuel Parsons Scott, transl., edited by Robert I[gnatius] Burns, Las Siete Partidas: Volume 4: Family, Commerce, and the Sea: The Worlds of Women and Merchants (The Middle Ages Series), volumes IV (Partidas IV and V), Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 1001:

     Where a vassal kills the brother, son, or grandson of his lord, he should lose his fief on account of it.

   • 2010, Gerard J. Brault, “The Death of Roland—Laisses 174–176 (verses 2355–2396)”, in The Song of Roland: An Analytical Edition. Volume I. Introduction and Commentary, University Park, Pa., London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, →ISBN, page 256:

     Investiture was the conferring of a fief by the lord to the vassal, and the rite consisted in the handing over by the lord of some symbolic object intended to represent the act of concession.

2. (figurative) Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.
   • 1989, Liliane Welch, “Grandparents: A Fragment”, in C. Dino Minni, editor, Ricordi, Things Remembered: An Anthology of Short Stories, Montreal: Guernica Editions, →ISBN, page 59:

     Through the years of my childhood my maternal grandmother remained the one unforgettable presence, the strong country woman ruling over her farm like a medieval lord. On her fief I first opened my eyes to poetry and to the land. […] There was something of the ancient matriarch in her, who had given her life to the ground, who felt that on her fief in southern Luxembourg she stood in the right place.

3. (figurative) A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with regard to corporate or governmental bureaucracies.

Synonyms

• fee

Hyponyms

• manor, seigniory, mesnalty, knight's fee

Derived terms

• fiefdom
• in fief

Related terms

• enfeoff
• feoff
• feoffee

Translations

An estate held with feudal obligations

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: অওসত (bn) (aosôt)
• Bulgarian: феодално владение n (feodalno vladenie)
• Catalan: feu (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 封地 (zh) (fēngdì), 采邑 (zh) (càiyì), 采地 (zh) (càidì), 封土 (zh) (fēngtǔ), 封邑 (zh) (fēngyì), 爵土 (zh) (juétǔ)

• Czech: léno (cs) n
• Danish: len n
• Dutch: leen (nl) n
• Finnish: läänitys (fi)
• French: fief (fr)
• Galician: couto (gl) m, bacelo (gl) m, feudo
• German: Lehen (de) n
• Hungarian: hűbér (hu), hűbérbirtok (hu)
• Italian: feudo (it) m
• Japanese: 封土 (ja) (ほうど, hōdo)
• Latin: feudum n, rēgnum (la) n
• Macedonian: феуд (feud)
• Portuguese: feudo (pt)
• Romagnol: féud m
• Romanian: fief (ro) n
• Russian: фео́д (ru) m (feód)
• Spanish: feudo (es) m
• Swedish: förläning (sv)
• Turkish: yurtluk (tr)

area of dominion

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: tontti (fi), valtakunta (fi)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• Fief in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Fife, fife

French

Etymology

From Old French fief, borrowed from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum, from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *peḱu- (“sheep”). Cognate with Old High German fihu (“cattle, neat”), Old English feoh (“cattle, property, money”). More at fee.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjɛf/

• Audio; “franc fief”:

  (file)

Noun

fief m (plural fiefs)

1. fief
2. (figurative) stronghold (district where a particular political party is usually assured of victory)

Related terms

• fieffer

Descendants

• → Romanian: fief

Further reading

• “fief”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German Low German

German Low German cardinal numbers

<  4	5	6  >
Cardinal : fief     Ordinal : föfft

Numeral

fief

1. Alternative form of fiev; five (5)

Coordinate terms

Cardinal numbers from 0 to 99

	—0	—1	—2	—3	—4	—5	—6	—7	—8	—9
0—	null	een	twee/twei	dree/drei	veer	fiev/fief	söß/söss/seß	sæben/söven	acht	negen/nägen
1—	teihn/tein/tien	ölven/elf	twölf	dörteihn	veerteihn	föffteihn	sössteihn	söventeihn	achtteihn	negenteihn
2—	twintig	eenuntwintig	tweeuntwintig	dreeuntwintig	veeruntwintig	fiefuntwintig	sössuntwintig	sövenuntwintig	achtuntwintig	negenuntwintig
3—	dörtig	eenundörtig	tweeundörtig	dreeundörtig	veerundörtig	fiefundörtig	sössundörtig	sövenundörtig	achtundörtig	negenundörtig
4—	veertig	eenunveertig	tweeunveertig	dreeunveertig	veerunveertig	fiefunveertig	sössunveertig	sövenunveertig	achtunveertig	negenunveertig
5—	föfftig	eenunföfftig	tweeunföfftig	dreeunföfftig	veerunföfftig	fiefunföfftig	sössunföfftig	sövenunföfftig	achtunföfftig	negenunföfftig
6—	sösstig	eenunsösstig	tweeunsösstig	dreeunsösstig	veerunsösstig	fiefunsösstig	sössunsösstig	sövenunsösstig	achtunsösstig	negenunsösstig
7—	söventig	eenunsöventig	tweeunsöventig	dreeunsöventig	veerunsöventig	fiefunsöventig	sössunsöventig	sövenunsöventig	achtunsöventig	negenunsöventig
8—	achtig tachentig	eenunachtig eenuntachentig	tweeunachtig tweeuntachentig	dreeunachtig dreeuntachentig	veerunachtig veeruntachentig	fiefunachtig fiefuntachentig	sössunachtig sössuntachentig	sövenunachtig sövenuntachentig	achtunachtig achtuntachentig	negenunachtig negenuntachentig
9—	negentig	eenunnegentig	tweeunnegentig	dreeunnegentig	veerunnegentig	fiefunnegentig	sössunnegentig	sövenunnegentig	achtunnegentig	negenunnegentig

Cardinal numbers from 100 onward

• 100: hunnert
• 10³: dusend, duusend, eendusend
• 10⁴: teihndusend
• 10⁶: Milljon
• 10¹²: Billjon
• 10¹⁵: Billjard

…

See also

• Plautdietsch: fief

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French fief.

Noun

fief n (plural fiefuri)

1. fief

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	fief	fieful		fiefuri	fiefurile
genitive-dative	fief	fiefului		fiefuri	fiefurilor
vocative	fiefule			fiefurilor