fief

noun
/fiːf/

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, feud, and feoff.

  1. derived from *peku-
  2. derived from *fehu — “cattle, sheep
  3. derived from *fehu — “cattle, livestock
  4. derived from fevum
  5. derived from fief
  6. borrowed from fief

Definitions

  1. Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal…

    Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.

  2. Synonym of estate

    Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.

  3. A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with…

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

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at fief. 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.

01fief02fealty03feudal04feudalism05vassal

A definitional loop anchored at fief. 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 fief

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