fealty · noun — fidelity to one's lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord. It carries an Arena rating of 1807, earned across 34 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fealty ranks #1,336 of 17,162 for Most Elegant Words, #1,515 of 17,207 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,681 of 17,146 for Most Storied Words, #2,688 of 17,188 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
fealty is pronounced /ˈfiː.əlti/.
Why “fealty” is a great word
FEALTY — [Noun] A feudal tenant's solemn, sworn fidelity to a lord, binding them to faithful service and allegiance. From Anglo-Norman fëauté, from Latin fidēlitās ("faithfulness"), from fidēlis ("faithful") + -tās (noun suffix). First recorded in English c. 1300. Unlike "loyalty," which implies a voluntary, personal devotion, or "fidelity," which denotes broad faithfulness, fealty is a specific, hierarchical bond sealed by oath. It is the calloused knee pressed to the cold stone floor, the voice speaking the archaic formula into the silence of the great hall, the hands clasped in a gesture that transforms a man into a vassal—a willing subordination of self to system, where honor is found not in freedom, but in the gravity of a promise.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English feaute, feute, from Anglo-Norman fëauté, fëuté, from Latin fidēlitās (“faithfulness”; “homage, fealty” in Medieval Latin), from fidēlis (“faithful”) + -tās (noun suffix); the modern form (for expected *feauty /ˈfjuːti/) is due to learned influence. Equivalent to obsolete feal + -ty. Doublet of fidelity.
noun
- Fidelity to one's lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.e.g.“I doubt whether the most devoted fidelity would bear strict examination as to the short reposes even the most entire fealty permits itself.” — 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 111:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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