escuage means payment to a lord in lieu of military service. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “escuage” is a great word
ESCUAGE — [Noun] A feudal payment made by a tenant to a lord in place of providing personal military service. From Middle English scuage, from Old French escuage, from escu ("shield", from Latin scutum) + -age (suffix forming nouns of action or condition). Unlike "knight-service," which demanded the personal bearing of arms, or "scutage," its narrower English fiscal counterpart, escuage is the broader feudal calculus of commutation. It is the clink of silver where armor should clang, the empty space at the muster, and the ledger entry that supersedes oaths of blood—the quiet solvent of a martial order.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English scuage, from Old French escuage; in Modern English, remodelled on the Old French etymon.
noun
- Payment to a lord in lieu of military service.“[…] subsidies were not to be granted, nor levied in this case ; that is, for wars of Scotland : for that the law had provided another course, by service of escuage, for those journeys […]”