Carucate
1) A measurement of land, equal to a hide (used in Danelaw) (MEDIEV-L. Medieval Terms)
2) Danish equivalent of a hide. The land ploughed by eight oxen; actual area varied locally and like the hide could be reassessed. (Wood, Michael. Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England, 213)
3) A “plough-land”; a measurement of land, notionally […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on March 5th, 2010 | No Comments »
Orders
1) The grades or steps of the Christian ministry; the so-called minor orders were acolyte, lector, exorcist, and doorkeeper; the so-called major orders, which bound their holders to celibacy, were bishop, priest, deacon and subdeacon.
(Lynch, Joseph H. The Medieval Church: A Brief History, 363)
2) Referring either to the grades of clerkship (holy or minor orders) […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on February 26th, 2010 | No Comments »
Fee-Farm
1) A fixed sum, usually paid annually, for the right to collect all revenues from land; in effect, rent. Lords may farm land to vassals, receiving a fixed annual rent in place of the normal feudal obligation. Many sheriffs farm out their shires, contracting in advance to pay a fixed annual sum to the crown, […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on February 19th, 2010 | No Comments »
Lavra
By the later Middle Ages, a major monastery. (Fine, John V.A. Jr. The Late Medieval Balkans, 624)
*definitions retreived from NetSERF’s Medieval Glossary (http://www.netserf.org/Glossary/)
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on February 12th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Husbandry
[huhz-buhn-dree]
1) the cultivation and production of edible crops or of animals for food; agriculture; farming.
2) the science of raising crops or food animals.
From Walter of Henly on Animal Husbandry, c. 1275:
Sort out your cattle once a year between Easter and Whitsuntide—that is to say, oxen, cows, and herds—and let those that are not to […]
Filed under: Medieval Timeline, Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary on February 5th, 2010 | No Comments »
Writ:
[rit]
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old English writan to write
1) Sealed document, transmitting an order from the king or his courts. (Sayles, George O. The King’s Parliament of England, 146)
2) A royal order to a definite person; a mandate commanding something to be done, usually by the sheriff of the county wherein […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 29th, 2010 | No Comments »
Tenure
[ten-yer]
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French teneure, tenure, from Medieval Latin tenitura, from Vulgar Latin *tenitus, past participle of Latin ten?re to hold
1) A general term for all interests in land; an act or right of holding; a right in land dependent upon a grant from a superior. (Hogue, Arthur R. Origins of the Common Law, […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 22nd, 2010 | No Comments »
Taper
[tey-per]
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English tapor candle, wick, perhaps modification of Latin papyrus papyrus
Origin: before 900 (according to dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster says before 1200)
1) a slender candle
2) a long wick coated with wax, tallow, or the like, as for use in lighting candles or fires
*definitions from Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com
From the Golden Legend or Lives of […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
Cellarer
[sel-er-er]
Etymology: Middle English celerer, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin cellariarius, from Latin cellarium
Official of a monastery responsible for food supplies. (Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village, 243)
From the autobiography of Guibert de Nogent (d. 1124):
For they [the monks] all have their own separate cells round the cloister in which they work, sleep […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
Pannage
1) Pasturage of pigs in woods; payment for that pasturage. (Bennett, Judith M. Women in the Medieval English Countryside, 234)
2) Fee to allow pigs to feed on forest mast. (Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village, 245)
*terms retrieved from NetSERF’s Medieval Glossary (http://www.netserf.org/Glossary)
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 1st, 2010 | 6 Comments »
