Feoffor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who conveys an estate in land to another under the feudal arrangement known as a feoff
2. The grantor of a feudal fee, the lord who transfers land to a vassal in exchange for service
3. Someone who gives freehold property to another person, creating the feudal tenure called a feoff

Etymology: A feoffor is the person who grants a feoff, a legal conveyance of land held in fee, and the word comes from Old French, where the verb "feoffer" meant to endow someone with a fief. The fief itself was a grant of land given in return for military or other service, so the noun carries the old feudal arrangement inside it. Its English spelling "feoffer" is the more common form, and "feoffor" is a variant that legal writers used for the same person.