seignior

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English seignour, also segnour and seniour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman segnour,^[5][6][7] also Old French seignor,^{[5][4][8][9][10][6]} modern seigneur,^[5][6][9] from Latin seniōrem (“older”), the accusative of the Latin adjective.^{[5][11][8][9][10]} The American Heritage Dictionary puts Vulgar Latin *senior between the Latin and the French and takes the Latin word as the comparative of senex (“old”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *sen- (“old”).^[11][4] The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from the first third of the 12th century, already meant lord or master, feudal lord and sovereign,^[12] and in French the word is recorded from the 11th century.^[11] It is a common Romance word, the same as Spanish señor, Portuguese senhor and Italian signore,^[5] and English also has seigneur, señor, signor, sir and sire from the same source.^[5] It appears as a surname from the late 12th century.^[11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ruler or overlord, and also a respectful title of address: both about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin, as seygnour.^[2][5] Barnhart has seygnour, a ruler, probably before 1300,^[8] and Etymonline about 1300.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered much of what lord did: a ruler or emperor, a person of high rank, a forefather, the elders of the Apocalypse, and God or Jesus.^[2] Most of this was already in Anglo-Norman.^[12] The OED's main sense, a person high in rank or authority or the lord of a manor, is recorded from 1393, in Langland's Piers Plowman, and was at first simply a synonym of lord.^[5] From before 1578 until 1718 it was also used to represent signor or seigneur in naming Italians and Frenchmen;^[5][6] Etymonline dates this to the 1580s and thinks it probably a reintroduction.^[11] Johnson (1755) knew it as "a lord" and as "the title of honour given by Italians".^[13] The word is now rare, chiefly a more vernacular substitute for seigneur in speaking of a French feudal noble,^[5] and Collins calls it a less common name for that title, adding the sense of the lord of a seigniory in England.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – seygnour, a ruler or overlord, and a title of address.^[2][5]
• 1393 – a person high in rank or authority; a feudal superior.^[5]
• c. 1400 – the spelling seygniour.^[8]
• before 1578 – used to represent the Italian or French title before the names of Italians and Frenchmen (obsolete by 1718).^[5] Etymonline dates this to the 1580s.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man of rank or authority, especially the feudal lord of a manor.^[3][4][5]
2. In England, the lord of a seigniory.^[7]
3. (archaic) A form of address to such a man.^[4][5][6]
4. (obsolete, 1578–1718) A title placed before the name of an Italian or a Frenchman.^[5][6]

Word family

• seigniorial
• seignioral

Related words

• seigneur
• seignory
• senior
• señor
• signor
• sir
• sire

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.