vassal
noun
- person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈvæsəl/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English vassal, from Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
- Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
“Did they, quoth you? / Who sees the heavenly Rosaline / That, like a rude and savage man of Inde / At the first opening of the gorgeous east / Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind / Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English vassal, from Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
- The grantee of a fief, a subordinate granted use of a superior's land and its income in exchange for vows of fidelity and homage and (typically) military service.
“The manor's vassals owed first fruits and a tithe to the parish church, another 10% to the lord (including at least 50 eels), a week or two each year of service in the manor's upkeep, and service in the local fyrd.”
“It was superimposed on rules of conduct evolved at an earlier date as the spontaneous expression of class consciousness; rules that pertained to the fealty of vassals (the transition appears clearly, towards the end of the eleventh century, in the Book of the Christian Life by Bishop Bonizo of Sutri, for whom the knight is, first and foremost, an enfeoffed vassal ) and constituted above all a class code of noble and 'courteous' people.”
- Any direct subordinate bound by such vows to a superior.
“The king ordered his vassals to join him on the crusade unless they had a written note signed by the archbishop or pope.”
- Any subordinate bound by similar close ties.
“The vassals of his anger.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English vassal, from Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
- To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
- To subordinate to someone or something.