Enfeoffee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The individual who receives a feudal landholding in exchange for loyalty and service to the grantor
2. Someone given a fief by a lord, bound to render homage and military service in return for the land
3. A recipient of a feudal grant of land who holds it under obligations owed to the superior who conveyed it

Etymology: Medieval English law had a word for the person who received land from a lord, and it was built from a much older idea of wealth. The root of "fee" meant livestock or movable property. Its Germanic ancestor, which also gave Gothic "faihu," meant cattle, and Latin "pecunia," the source of "pecuniary," comes from the same root as "pecus," meaning herd. A "fief" was a grant of land held in return for service, and to "enfeoff" someone was to put them in possession of such a grant. The "-ee" ending marks the one who receives the action. It comes through Anglo-French, where the past-participle suffix "-é" was used to name the person on the receiving end of a legal transaction. English lawyers adopted the pattern, so an enfeoffee is the person enfeoffed, just as a lessee is the one who receives a lease. The term belongs to the vocabulary of property law rather than everyday speech. Its dates of first recorded use are not something I can confirm here.

Synonyms: feoffee