Stewardry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The office, role or duties of a steward who manages an estate or household ; the responsible handling and oversight of resources or property entrusted to someone's care
2. The position and responsibilities held by a steward in charge of an estate or organization ; the careful and accountable supervision of assets or possessions placed in one's keeping
3. The job of overseeing a household, estate or institution on another's behalf ; the conscientious management and protection of resources held in trust

Etymology: "Stewardry" is one of several spellings of a word that in Scotland came to name a specific district. The base is "steward," which traces back to Old English "stigweard," literally "hall-keeper" or "sty-ward," the keeper of a household or estate. Adding the suffix "-ry," which marks a office, function or domain, gives the sense of the job or realm a steward governs. The spelling wobbled considerably. Middle English had "stevardry," "stevartry" and "stewartry," and the "-art" form survived mainly in Scotland, where a stewartry was a territory under a steward's jurisdiction. "Stewardry" is the variant that stayed closer to the English spelling of the official title, which is why it appears in dictionaries as an alternative to "stewartry" rather than the other way round.

Synonyms: stewardship, administration, management, guardianship, custodianship