Defesaunce

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for the protection or defense someone offers against attack or harm
2. Old-fashioned word meaning the means of guarding oneself or others from danger or assault
3. A obsolete spelling for defence, referring to resistance or shelter against an enemy or threat

Etymology: Medieval English writers spelled "defence" in several ways, and "defesaunce" is one of them. It comes from Anglo-French "defense," which was borrowed from Old French and ultimately from Latin "defendere," "to ward off." The word was already in use by the 1300s, and the spelling "-aunce" reflects the French-influenced ending that many English words of that period carried. The spelling is easy to confuse with "defeasance," a legal term that has the opposite meaning. A defeasance is a clause that cancels or annuls a deed when a condition is met. It comes from Anglo-French "defeisance," from the verb meaning "to undo," which is also the source of "defeat" in its older sense of overthrowing or undoing. The two words share a few letters but no root. Legal scribes sometimes wrote one for the other, so a "defesaunce" in an old document may be a defence, a defeasance, or a scribal slip, and readers have to judge from context.