seigneurialsystem
nounUK /seɪˈnjɔːriəl ˈsɪstəm/
US /seɪˈnjʊriəl ˈsɪstəm/
A way of living long ago where a lord owned the land and the people who worked it had to serve him.
In the seigneurialsystem, farmers gave part of their crops to the lord who owned the land.
RELATED WORDS
OTHER MEANINGS
2. A land-holding arrangement in which a lord grants land to tenants in return for rent or service.
The seigneurialsystem shaped how land was shared in medieval villages.
3. A colonial land-grant system in parts of Canada and the Caribbean where landowners held large estates worked by tenants.
Under the seigneurialsystem in New France, seigneurs divided land among settlers.
4. Any social order built on a powerful landowner controlling the labor of poorer workers.
Critics described the plantation economy as a modern seigneurialsystem.