different between fief vs feoffee

English

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-, *pe?u- (“sheep”). Doublet of fee.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi?f/
• Rhymes: -i?f

Noun

fief (countable and uncountable, plural fiefs)

1. An estate held by a person on condition of providing military service to a superior.
2. Something over which one has rights or exercises control.
3. (figuratively) An area of dominion, especially in a corporate or governmental bureaucracy.

Synonyms

• manor
• seigniory

Derived terms

• fiefdom
• in fief

Related terms

• enfeoff
• fee
• feoff
• feoffee

Translations

See also

• Fief in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Fife, fife

French

Etymology

From Old French fief, borrowed from Medieval Latin fevum, a variant of feudum, from Old Frankish *fehu (“cattle, livestock”), from Proto-Germanic *fehu (“cattle, sheep”), from Proto-Indo-European *peku-, *pe?u- (“sheep”). Cognate with Old High German fihu (“cattle, neat”), Old English feoh (“cattle, property, money”). More at fee.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fj?f/

Noun

fief m (plural fiefs)

1. fief

Related terms

• fieffer

Descendants

• ? Romanian: fief

References

Further reading

• “fief” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German Low German

Numeral

fief

1. Alternative form of fiev; five (5)

Coordinate terms

See also

• Plautdietsch: fief

Romanian

Etymology

From French fief.

Noun

fief n (plural fiefuri)

1. fief

Declension

English

Etymology

feoff +? -ee (“(object)”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?f?i?/ or IPA^(key): /?f?fi/ or IPA^(key): /fi??fi?/

Noun

feoffee (plural feoffees)

1. A vassal holding a fief.
   • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest

     […] this quiz with all the strange old terms in it, curtilage and messuage and socage and fee simple and fee tail and feoffee and copyhold and customary freehold and mortmain and devises and lex loci rei sitae.

Related terms

• enfeoff
• feoff
• feoffment
• fief