escuage

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English scuage, from Old French escuage; in Modern English, remodelled on the Old French etymon.

Noun

escuage (countable and uncountable, plural escuages)

1. (historical, Middle Ages) Payment to a lord in lieu of military service.
   • 1622, Francis Bacon, Bacon's History of the Reign of King Henry VII, Cambridge University Press, published 1902, page 148:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1829, George Crabb, History of English Law, 1831 American Edition, page 374,

     When the escuage which was to be paid was uncertain, being more or less according to the pleasure of the king or the assessment of parliament ; then the tenure by escuage was a sort of knight′s service.

   • 1841, William Rastell, transl., edited by Thomas de Littleton Sir Thomas Edlyne Tomlins, Lyttleton, His Treatise of Tenures: In French and English, page 188:

     And the cause why this service is called grand serjeanty is, for that it is a greater and more worthy service than the service in the tenure of escuage.

   • 1866, Land Tax, entry in William Thomas Brande, George William Cox (editors), A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art, Volume 2, page 308,

     These escuages were virtually a very heavy land tax […]

Old French

Etymology

Either from escu (“shield”) +‎ -age, or escuer (“to evade”) +‎ -age.

Noun

escuage oblique singular, m (oblique plural escuages, nominative singular escuages, nominative plural escuage)

1. escuage (medieval payment to a lord)

Descendants

• → Middle English: scuage, skuage, skwage
  • English: escuage (restored from the etymon)