vassal

• vasal (rare)

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).

• IPA^(key): /ˈvæsəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æsəl

vassal (plural vassals)

1. (historical, law) 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.

   Synonyms: feudatory, feudal tenant

   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.

   • 2002, Marc Bloch, Feudal Society: Vol 2: Social Classes and Political Organisation, page 38:

     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.

2. (historical) Any direct subordinate bound by such vows to a superior.

   Synonyms: subject, dependant, bondsman, villein, serf, helot, thrall, servant, slave

   The king ordered his vassals to join him on the crusade unless they had a written note signed by the archbishop or pope.

3. (figurative) Any subordinate bound by similar close ties.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     The vassals of his anger.

vassal (not comparable)

1. Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     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?

vassal (third-person singular simple present vassals, present participle vassaling or vassalling, simple past and past participle vassaled or vassalled)

1. (transitive) To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
2. (transitive) To subordinate to someone or something.

• Salvas, slavas, vasals

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).

• IPA^(key): /va.sal/

• Audio:

  (file)

vassal (feminine vassale, masculine plural vassaux, feminine plural vassales)

1. vassal

vassal m (plural vassaux, feminine vassale)

1. a vassal

• → Danish: vasal
• → Russian: васса́л (vassál) (see there for further descendants)

• “vassal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• valsas

vas (“iron”) +‎ -val (“with”, instrumental case suffix)

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɒʃːɒl]
• Hyphenation: vas‧sal

vassal

1. instrumental singular of vas

• tűzzel-vassal

• vassall

From Old French vassal.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvasal/

vassal (plural vassalles)

1. A feudal retainer, who is obliged to render military service.
2. A servant to one’s beloved, professed lover.
3. As surname.

• English: vassal
• Yola: vassale

• “vassal, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

vassal oblique singular, m (oblique plural vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative singular vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative plural vassal)

1. vassal

• French: vassal
• Norman: vassa (Jersey)
• → Middle English: vassal, vassall
  • English: vassal
  • Yola: vassale