fief
/fi:f/ Cách viết khác : (feoff) /fef/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A piece of land held under the feudal system: A "fief" is a grant of land, typically from a lord to a vassal, in exchange for loyalty and service. The vassal who held the fief was called a "feudal tenant" or "vassal."
Examples of Usage
- Noun:
- The knight received a fief from the king in return for his military service.
- Managing the fief included collecting taxes from the peasants who lived and worked on the land.
Advanced Usage
- "To hold something in fief": To possess or control something as if it were a feudal grant, implying conditional ownership or authority.
- The local governor seemed to hold the province in fief, answering only to the distant emperor.
Variants and Related Words
- Fiefdom (n): The estate or domain of a feudal lord; often used metaphorically to describe an area or sphere of control.
- The manager treated the sales department as his personal fiefdom.
- Feudal (adj): Relating to the medieval system of landholding and social organization based on fiefs.
- Feoff (n): An archaic variant spelling of "fief."
Synonyms
- Feud: An archaic term for a fief.
- Fee: In historical legal context, an inherited estate of land.
- Estate: A large area of land owned by one person or organization.
- Manor: The house and lands of a lord, often central to a fief.
Related Phrases
- "Fief and fee": A historical legal phrase referring to the terms of land tenure.
- "To enfeoff" (verb, archaic): To grant a fief to someone; to invest with a feudal estate.
- The lord agreed to enfeoff his loyal knight with the lands bordering the forest.
Noun
- a piece of land held under the feudal system