Foragium

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historical term referring to the right or practice of gathering food or resources from the wild
2. The act of searching for and collecting provisions or materials in natural settings
3. A customary privilege in certain societies to harvest edible items from communal land

Etymology: "Foragium" is a Medieval Latin noun, and its history is tied to the Latin word for fodder. The Latin "forage" (fodder, food for animals) was the source of the Old French "fourrage," which was used for the provisioning of horses and soldiers, particularly in the context of military campaigns. Medieval Latin then formed "foragium" from this base, using a suffix that made it denote the right or act of taking such provisions. In medieval Latin documents, "foragium" appears in the sense of a feudal payment or due, often a tax or obligation owed to a lord in the form of supplies or money, and sometimes the right to requisition provisions from tenants. Its meaning was thus closer to a legal levy than to the modern idea of foraging for wild food. The word's core notion of gathering provisions for animals and men remained, but it applied to the lord's claim on the countryside rather than to the gatherer's own activity.

Synonyms: forage, fodder