Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Feudal tenure of land by a tenant in return for agricultural or other nonmilitary services or for payment of rent in money.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In law, a tenure of lands in England by the performance of certain determinate service: distinguished both from knight-service, in which the render was uncertain, and from villeinage, where the service was of the meanest kind: the only freehold tenure in England after the abolition of military tenures. Socage has generally been distinguished into free and villein—free socage, or common or simple socage, where the service was not only certain but honorable, as by fealty and the payment of a small sum, as of a few shillings, in name of annual rent, and villein socage, where the service, though certain, was of a baser nature. This last tenure was the equivalent of what is now called
copy-hold tenure .
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete In the Middle Ages, a system whereby a tenant would pay a rent or do some agricultural work for the landlord.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (O.Eng. Law) A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated
socage , as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent.
WordNet 3.0
- n. land tenure by agricultural service or payment of rent; not burdened with military service
Etymologies
- From Middle English sokage, from Anglo-Norman socage from soc (“soke”) + -age. More at soke, -age. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English sokage, from soke, soke; see soke. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A minor might, however, inherit land held by what was known as socage tenure, which according to Sir William Blackstone”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“But this does not hold good where the King is the lord of the common pasture, and several persons holding of him in socage have common, because in that case anyone having common may avow a good distress.”
“It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a species of socage, to distinguish it from the military holdings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching and warding for the defence of the burgh.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
“The proprietors held their land in free and common socage, and the planters in the Northern Neck paid quitrents and fees to the proprietors rather than to the crown.”
“The fixed rent replaced the service, military or personal, required under feudal law; and the socage tenure in effect did not subject the land to the rules of escheat or return of the land to the”
“His right to the land, in fact, was not freehold, but tenure by villein socage.”
“He had just got to the bit about Raptu Haeredis, which -- as of course you know, is a writ for taking away an heir holding in socage.”
“They were given in freehold, in free and common socage.”
The Seigneurs of Old Canada : A Chronicle of New World Feudalism
“The Puritan who went to Massachusetts Bay took his system of socage tenure along with him.”
The Seigneurs of Old Canada : A Chronicle of New World Feudalism
“Prince Cuza introduced a series of reforms; the most important were the secularization of the Greek monasteries, the law dealing with public instruction, the codification of the laws on the basis of the Napoleonic Code, and especially the land laws of 1864, by which the peasants were given free possession of the land and the remnants of serfdom, socage and tithes, were abolished.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘socage’.
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Land
A list of terms for land, landholdings, or words that contain the string -land-.
scabland, wheatland, cornland, slander, land-locked, dryland, riceland, clandestine, acreage, island, Iceland, Greenland and 269 more...
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The -ages of Man(-age)
Trivet also has this list, which you should go see. And then I found this list, and this list...
manage, salvage, selvadge, savage, voyage, umbrage, entourage, homage, carriage, marriage, language, potage and 123 more...
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Rent
Here I'm attempting to list words which have to do with what the Century Dictionary defines as "a definite compensation or return reserved by a lease, to be made periodically, or fixed with referen...
rent, Rent, economic rent, rent-service, rent-charge, fee-farm rent, rent-seck, seck, rent seck, barren rent, rents of assize, quit-rents and 32 more...
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Words!
expiate, litote, quixotic, expectorant, brakish, animadversion, militated, garish, rrulous, desiderate, desiderata, desideratum and 131 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 317 more...
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De minimis non curat lex
seisin, tort, fee simple, fee entail, feodum, fief, socage, serjeanty, escheat, allodial, scutage, demesne and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for socage.
chained_bear See OED definition on soccage (alternate/archaic spelling). Nov 20, 2008