1610s, "pertaining to feuds," estates of land granted by a superior on condition of services to be rendered to the grantor, from Medieval Latin feudalis, from feudum "feudal estate, land granted to be held as a benefice," of Germanic origin (cognates: Gothic faihu "property," Old High German fihu "cattle;" see fee). Related to Middle English feodary "one who holds lands of an overlord in exchange for service" (late 14c.). Not related to feud.
c. 1300, "ceremony or act of acknowledging one's faithfulness to a feudal lord; feudal allegiance," earlier "body of vassals of a feudal king" (early 13c.), from Old French omage, homage "allegiance or respect for one's feudal lord" (12c., Modern French hommage), from homme "man," in Medieval Latin "a vassal," from Latin homo (genitive hominis) "man" (see homunculus). Figurative sense of "reverence, honor shown" is from late 14c.
late 14c., "vassal of a feudal lord," also "a feudal sovereign, a liege-lord," probably from liege (adj.)) or from a noun use of the adjective in Old French or Anglo-French. A fully reciprocal relationship, so the adjective could apply to either party. Old French distinguished them as lige seignur "liege-lord" and home lige "liege-man."
early 15c., earlier servitute (late 14c.), "slavery, bondage, condition of being enslaved," from Old French servitude, servitute (13c.) and directly from Late Latin servitudo "slavery," from Latin servus "a slave" (see serve (v.)) + abstract noun suffix (see -tude). Also "state of being a feudal vassal" (c. 1500). The meaning "compulsory service or labor," such as a criminal undergoes, is by 1828.
Other words in similar senses, many obsolete, include servantship "state or condition of being a servant" (1570s); servage "servitude, bondage, slavery; serfdom, subjugation, feudal homage to a ruler" (c. 1300, from Old French servage and directly from Medieval Latin servagium); servity "slavery, servitude" (late 15c., from Latin servitus).
"exclusive set or circle of persons who are in the habit of meeting and socializing, a clique," 1738, from French coterie "circle of acquaintances," originally an organization of peasants holding land from a feudal lord (14c.), from cotier "tenant of a cote" (see cottage).
also seizin, c. 1300, saisine, "possession as freehold, possession of land under rightful title," from Old French seisine, from saisir, seisir "sieze" (see seize (v.)). Originally it referred to the completion of the ceremony of feudal investiture (by which the tenant was admitted into his freehold). Extended sense of "ownership, possession" is from mid-14c.
"trite, commonplace," 1840, from French banal, "belonging to a manor; common, hackneyed, commonplace," from Old French banel "communal" (13c.), from ban "decree; legal control; announcement; authorization; payment for use of a communal oven, mill, etc.," from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *bannan "to speak publicly, used of different kinds of proclamations (see ban (v.)).
The sense evolved from the word's use in designating ovens, mills, etc. that were used in common by serfs, or else in reference to compulsory feudal military service; in either case it was generalized in French through "open to everyone" to "commonplace, ordinary," to "trite, petty." The word was earlier used in English with a sense of "pertaining to compulsory feudal service" (1753). Related: Banalize; banalization.
Middle English, representing the merger or mutual influence of two words, one from Old English, one from an Old French form of the same Germanic word, and both ultimately from a PIE root meaning "cattle."
The Old English word is feoh "livestock, cattle; movable property; possessions in livestock, goods, or money; riches, treasure, wealth; money as a medium of exchange or payment," from Proto-Germanic *fehu (source also of Old Saxon fehu, Old High German fihu, German Vieh "cattle," Gothic faihu "money, fortune"). This is from PIE *peku- "cattle" (source also of Sanskrit pasu, Lithuanian pekus "cattle;" Latin pecu "cattle," pecunia "money, property").
The other word is Anglo-French fee, from Old French fieu, a variant of fief "possession, holding, domain; feudal duties, payment" (see fief), which apparently is a Germanic compound in which the first element is cognate with Old English feoh.
Via Anglo-French come the legal senses "estate in land or tenements held on condition of feudal homage; land, property, possession" (c. 1300). Hence fee-simple (late 14c.) "absolute ownership," as opposed to fee-tail (early 15c.) "entailed ownership," inheritance limited to some particular class of heirs (second element from Old French taillir "to cut, to limit").
The feudal sense was extended from landholdings to inheritable offices of service to a feudal lord (late 14c.; in Anglo-French late 13c.), for example forester of fe "a forester by heritable right." As these often were offices of profit, the word came to be used for "remuneration for service in office" (late 14c.), hence, "payment for (any kind of) work or services" (late 14c.). From late 14c. as "a sum paid for a privilege" (originally admission to a guild); early 15c. as "money payment or charge exacted for a licence, etc."
late 13c., Anglo-French, "to turn over to another," from Old French atorner "to turn, turn to, assign, attribute, dispose," from a- "to" (see ad-) + tourner "to turn," from Latin tornare "to turn on a lathe," from tornus "lathe," from Greek tornos "lathe, tool for drawing circles" (from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn"). In feudal law, "to transfer homage or allegiance to another lord."
