fealty

noun
/ˈfiː.əlti/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feaute, feute, from Anglo-Norman fëauté, fëuté, from Latin fidēlitās (“faithfulness”; “homage, fealty” in Medieval Latin), from fidēlis (“faithful”) + -tās (noun suffix); the modern form (for expected *feauty /ˈfjuːti/) is due to learned influence. Equivalent to obsolete feal + -ty. Doublet of fidelity.

  1. derived from fidēlitās
  2. derived from fëauté
  3. inherited from feaute

Definitions

  1. Fidelity to one's lord or master

    Fidelity to one's lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.

    • I doubt whether the most devoted fidelity would bear strict examination as to the short reposes even the most entire fealty permits itself.
    • In one recent video, he said the problem posed by a Russian military led by people who demand nothing but blind fealty would need to be dealt with — “or one day the Russian people will solve it themselves.”

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at fealty. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01fealty02feudal03feudalism04vassal05fief

A definitional loop anchored at fealty. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at fealty

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA