Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See fee.
- n. A fiefdom.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A fee; a feud; an estate held of a superior on condition of military or other service. See feud.
- n. In French-Canadian law, immovable property held under a feudal tenure, to which is attached a privilege of nobility, subject to fealty and homage and to certain services to the seignior. Also feoff.
Wiktionary
- n. An estate held of a superior on condition of military service.
- n. Something over which one has rights or exercises control.
- n. metaphor An area of dominion, especially in a corporate or governmental bureaucracy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Law) An estate held of a superior on condition of military service; a fee; a feud. See under benefice, n., 2.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a piece of land held under the feudal system
Etymologies
- From Old French fief, of Germanic origin. Related to fee. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French feu, fief; see fee. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In fact, fief is the root word for fee and thats what you find on a speeding ticket: theres a fee for the courts, a fee for the admin personnel, a fee for processing and lastly, a fee for going over the 1973 oil-crisis fabricated 55mph speed limit. luvmycop”
“But we must bear in mind that he still held his possessions in France as a fief from the French king, whose vassal he was.”
“He agreed to make the decision on condition that the one whom he selected should hold Scotland as a fief from the English king.”
“The Genoese, who, after the recovery of Constantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or Galata, received that honorable fief from the bounty of the emperor.”
“The model of government was taken from that of a military subordination, and a fief was the temporary pay of an officer proportioned to his rank.”
“This practice was also founded on the notion that a fief was a benefice, and that, while the heir could not perform his military services, the revenue devolved to the superior, who employed another in his stead.”
“He worked with Mr Putin at first, but all attempts to break up his Moscow fief, which is fortified by its own courts, police and media, have invariably failed.”
“Ersöz also told Suayip Tanış that Şırnak was his 'fief' and that he did not want HADEP there.”
“The Feudal System: 3. vassalage: warriors (knights) swearing an oath to their lord land itself was called the "fief":”
“In 1998 she won her first local election as a regional councilor for the party fief of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and in 2004 she was voted into the European Parliament.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fief’.
-
The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
-
Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 843 more...
-
parlerodermime's Words
loquacious, orange, lackadaisical, rhythm, esoterrorist, contrary, enchanted, extraordinary, nymph, chatter, incessant, time and 168 more...
-
random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
-
He was a verray, parfit gentil knyght
my favourite era
feudal, peasant, vassal, serf, medieval, fief, chivalry, yeoman, joust, primogeniture, wimple, abbey and 56 more...
-
the urban planner
Large-scale humanity. From small settlements, to nations, to regions within a larger region.
confederacy, federation, republic, kingdom, emirate, fief, monarchy, sovereignty, realm, principality, domain, oligarchy and 25 more...
-
the castle and its surrounds
labyrinth, throne room, moat, dais, throne, scullery, court, tunnel, vault, mausoleum, crypt, dungeon and 43 more...
-
De minimis non curat lex
seisin, tort, fee simple, fee entail, feodum, fief, socage, serjeanty, escheat, allodial, scutage, demesne and 11 more...
-
medieval
ghosts
ancestors
unnameable, unknowable, unfathomable
the feeling of reading Joseph Conrad or H. P. Lovecraft
or walking through Kunark in EverQuest
or looking at medi...horror, gloom, melancholia, malebolgia, leviathan, dwelling, dread, cthulu, azazel, bog, skein, pilfer and 32 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fief.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.