Agist

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈd͡ʒɪst/

Definitions

1. To permit grazing rights on shared pasture land in exchange for compensation
2. To lease out land for grazing livestock in return for a fee
3. To grant permission for animals to feed on land in exchange for money

Etymology: "Agist" comes to English from Anglo-Norman "agister," meaning "to pasture for a fee." The word is built on the Old French verb "agister," which combines "a-" (to, toward) with "gister," meaning to lie down or lodge, and that sense of settling animals onto land is the heart of the original idea. Medieval landowners rented out grazing rights, and a herd lodged on another's pasture was the thing being charged for. Its life in English was mostly confined to the legal and agricultural world of the medieval and early modern countryside, where the practice of taking in other people's livestock for payment was common enough to need its own precise term. The word stayed a specialist term rather than spreading into everyday speech, which is why many readers meet it for the first time in a land-law context.

Synonyms: herdsman, rancher