Thirlage

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. In Scottish feudal law, the obligation binding tenants to have their grain ground only at a specified lord's mill
2. The historical Scottish legal bond that required farmers to bring their corn to one designated mill and pay for its use
3. A medieval Scots right under which a landowner compelled tenants to grind their grain at his own mill

Etymology: Thirlage is a Scots legal term for the obligation that tenants of a feudal estate had to grind their grain only at the lord's mill, paying a fee for the privilege. The word is an alteration of the earlier "thrallage," and that older form makes its meaning plain: it comes from "thrall," a bondman or serf, combined with the suffix "-age," which marks a condition, a payment, or a service. A thrallage was therefore the service owed by someone bound in servitude, and the mill obligation was one of the most visible forms of that bond. The word's own history reflects the change in its sound. Over time "thrallage" was worn down to "thirlage," with the vowel shifting in Scots pronunciation, and the new spelling is the form that has survived in legal and historical writing. The underlying idea, that a dependant was tied to a particular lord's facilities, remained the same even as the spelling drifted.