vassal
English
Alternative forms
- vasal (rare)
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French vassal, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
Pronunciation
Noun
vassal (plural vassals)
- (historical) The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who keeps land of a superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him, normally a lord of a manor; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.
- A subordinate
- (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- The vassals of his anger.
- (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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Adjective
vassal (not comparable)
- Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, 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?
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, scene iii
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Verb
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- (transitive) To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
- (transitive) To subordinate to someone or something.
Translations
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Anagrams
French
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French vassal, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
Pronunciation
Adjective
vassal (feminine vassale, masculine plural vassaux, feminine plural vassales)
Noun
vassal m (plural vassaux, feminine vassale)
- a vassal
Descendants
- → Russian: васса́л (vassál) (see there for further descendants)
Further reading
- “vassal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Hungarian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
vassal
Derived terms
Old French
Noun
vassal oblique singular, m (oblique plural vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative singular vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative plural vassal)
Descendants
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Gaulish
- English terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æsəl
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with historical senses
- Requests for date/John Milton
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English transitive verbs
- en:Feudalism
- en:People
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms derived from Medieval Latin
- French terms derived from Gaulish
- French terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Hungarian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Hungarian non-lemma forms
- Hungarian noun forms
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French masculine nouns