seigneur

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French seigneur, from Old French seignor. Doublet of seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, sir, and sire.

1. A feudal lord or noble.

   “"Then you're not - " "Darling," I said, "do you really see me in the position of a seigneur, driving my serfs and villeins before me with a whip - even if the triffids haven't overrun me first?"”

   “There was less and less love lost between peasants and seigneurs. The services which the latter had provided for the peasant community in the past had diminished in value.”

2. The hereditary feudal ruler of Sark.

   “Beaumont lives on Sark, a small, autonomous island twenty-five miles off the coast of Normandy, with her husband, Michael, the island's seigneur.”

3. A landowner in Canada; the holder of a seigneurie.
4. A hereditary title in the Bailiwick of Jersey.