different between vassal vs suzerain

English

Alternative forms

• vasal (rare)

Etymology

From Middle English vassal, from Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?væs?l/
• Rhymes: -æs?l

Noun

vassal (plural vassals)

1. (historical) The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who keeps land of a superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him, normally a lord of a manor; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.
2. A subordinate

   Synonyms: subject, dependant, servant, slave

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

vassal (not comparable)

1. Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, scene iii

     Did they, quoth you? / Who sees the heavenly Rosaline / That, like a rude and savage man of Inde / At the first opening of the gorgeous east / Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind / Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?

Translations

Verb

vassal (third-person singular simple present vassals, present participle vassalling, simple past and past participle vassalled)

1. (transitive) To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
2. (transitive) To subordinate to someone or something.

Translations

Anagrams

• Salvas, slavas, vasals

French

Etymology

From Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /va.sal/

Adjective

vassal (feminine singular vassale, masculine plural vassaux, feminine plural vassales)

1. vassal

Noun

vassal m (plural vassaux, feminine vassale)

1. a vassal

Descendants

• ? Danish: vasal
• ? Russian: ??????? (vassál) (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• valsas

Hungarian

Etymology

vas +? -val

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?v????l]
• Hyphenation: vas?sal

Noun

vassal

1. instrumental singular of vas

Derived terms

• t?zzel-vassal

Old French

Noun

vassal m (oblique plural vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative singular vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative plural vassal)

1. vassal

Descendants

• English: vassal (rare)
• French: vassal
• Norman: vassa (Jersey)

English

Etymology

From French suzerain, based on sus (“up, above”) (from Latin sursum) with the ending of souverain (whence also English sovereign).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s(j)uz(?)??n/, /?s(j)uz???e??n/
• Hyphenation: su?ze?rain, suz?erain

Noun

suzerain (plural suzerains)

1. (international politics) A dominant nation or state that has control over the international affairs of a subservient state which otherwise has domestic autonomy.
2. (historical) A feudal landowner to whom vassals were forced to pledge allegiance.

Derived terms

• suzerainty

Translations

Anagrams

• azuresin, azurines

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syz.???/

Noun

suzerain m (plural suzerains)

1. suzerain

Adjective

suzerain (feminine singular suzeraine, masculine plural suzerains, feminine plural suzeraines)

1. suzerain (attributive)

Derived terms

• suzerainement