Vavasour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medieval feudal tenant ranking below a baron and above a knight ; a vassal who holds land directly from a lord and owes military or other service ; a subordinate nobleman with specific feudal duties and privileges
2. A feudal subordinate who holds estates from a superior lord but ranks beneath a baron ; a landholder obligated to provide service in return for tenancy ; a noble minor tenant involved in the hierarchical medieval land tenure system
3. A landholder in the feudal system who serves a lord and possesses a rank between knight and baron ; a vassal who owes obligations such as military aid while managing granted estates ; a lesser noble tenant holding land with corresponding duties under feudal law

Etymology: The word "vavasour" names a minor feudal landholder, a man who held land directly from a greater lord but who in turn had vassals of his own, so he sat in the middle of the feudal chain. Its origin is a Medieval Latin term, "vavassor," which may come from the phrase "vassus vassorum," meaning "vassal of vassals." That phrase is the kind of Latin a clerk would write to pin down an awkward social position: a man who was a vassal to someone above him and a lord to someone below. The word came into English in Middle English from Old French "vavasour," so it arrived as a term of medieval law and land tenure rather than everyday speech. The "perhaps" in the derivation matters, though. The link to "vassus vassorum" is a plausible explanation rather than a settled fact, and scholars have not fully agreed on how the Medieval Latin form was shaped.

Synonyms: vassal, tenant