Sornesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of living at another person's expense by taking food, lodging, or support without paying for it, as in old Scottish usage
2. An archaic Scots term for the habit of sponging off a household or host by imposing on their hospitality
3. Freeloading on the generosity of others, especially by staying in their home and eating at their table without contributing

Etymology: In medieval England, a "sornesse" was the oppressive practice of forcing food and lodging out of other people, the sort of extortion a lord's retainers or a band of hangers-on might impose on a village. The noun belongs to a family of Middle English words built on the Anglo-Norman verb "sorner," which named the same kind of forced hospitality. Its root is probably the Old French "sorner," meaning to take free lodging by compulsion, and the same stem gives "sornour," a person who sponged on others in this way. The word survives mainly in Scots law as "sorning," which describes the same offence of living at another's expense by intimidation, so the sense of forced free board has outlasted the word itself in most of English. The exact connection to the French verb's own origin is uncertain, so the reconstruction stops at Old French.