feudal

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin feudālis, also feodālis,^[2][3][4] possibly through French féodal.^[5][6] The Latin adjective is formed from feudum, also feodum, a feudal estate,^[2][5] and the suffix -ālis.^[3] Feudum meant land granted to be held as a benefice, in return for service;^[7][8] it was the source of fee and fief, so feudal is closely related to them.^[8][9] The Medieval Latin noun is of Germanic origin,^[10][7] and Etymonline compares Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿 (faihu, “property”) and Old High German fihu (“cattle”),^[7] words that go back to Proto-Indo-European *peku- (“cattle”).^[8][10] Ayto notes that it is usually derived from an unrecorded Frankish *fehuōd (“cattle-property”),^[8] but the OED rejects that etymology, because such a compound could only have meant movable property, not land held in return for service, and calls the ultimate origin uncertain.^[2] Etymonline stresses that the word is not related to feud, enmity.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to a fief: first recorded in 1614, in John Selden's Titles of Honor.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster gives 1602 as the first known use,^[3] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word described the land itself and its tenure: a fief, or (from before 1641, in Spelman) the holding of land in fief.^[2] It was extended from 1665 to the whole system of relations between lord and vassal based on such holdings,^[2] and in 1776 Adam Smith wrote of the system of polity of medieval Europe in these terms;^[2] the noun feudalism followed in 1839.^[5] Phrases such as feudal lord and feudal vassal date from before 1641.^[2] From 1876 the word was also used of people or opinions that held to the principles of the feudal system,^[2] and in modern use it can be a derogatory word for anything old-fashioned or reactionary.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as relating to fees or tenures held of a superior lord, and also listed a noun feudal, a dependency held by tenure;^[12] the OED records the noun only once, in 1625, for feudal privileges.^[2] In heraldry the word has a technical use from 1847.^[2]

Timeline

• 1614 – of or relating to a fief.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1602.^[3]
• before 1641 – relating to the holding of land in fief, and the phrases feudal lord and feudal vassal.^[2]
• 1625 – noun, feudal privileges (obsolete, rare).^[2][13]
• 1665 – of or relating to the feudal system.^[2][13]
• 1776 – of the system of polity of medieval Europe, in Adam Smith.^[2]
• 1839 – the noun feudalism.^[5]
• 1876 – of persons or opinions, holding to the principles of the feudal system.^[2][13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or typical of feudalism, the medieval system in which vassals held land from a lord in return for service: the feudal society of medieval Europe.^[11][3][2]
2. Of or relating to a fief or to the holding of land in fief.^[11][3][2]
3. (derogatory) Old-fashioned or reactionary, like the feudal system.^[11]

Word family

• feudally
• antifeudal
• feudalize
• nonfeudal
• prefeudal
• semifeudal
• unfeudal
• feudal system
• feudalism

Related words

• fee
• fief
• feud
• feudatory
• fellow
• pecuniary

Usage notes

A separate, rare adjective feudal, "of or relating to a feud or bitter hostility", has been formed from the noun feud and the suffix -al since 1805, when Walter Scott used it in The Lay of the Last Minstrel.^[2][4][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)