Hi, in relation to the Feudal system, I am asking about the word “field”. Although there are direct links to its etymology on other sites, my line of questioning is – could it have come from a contraction of two words (i.e.) “fief hold”? I thought of that the other day when reviewing my mortgage. The phrase freehold keeps coming up, and I wondered if “field” would be a contraction of “fief hold”; a parcel of land given within a fiefdom?
Dan:
May 7th, 2017 at 6:37 pm
Thank you for this site! I’m a translator (from/to English and Portuguese) and I find myself constantly finding superb explanations on words here whenever I just google something.
Michael Cenkner:
May 10th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
Thanks, very nice discussion.
Recently reencountered the word ‘feudalism’ in a Chinese-language blog (manSu zhongwen).
The word (fengJian) was used in Chinese Marxist discourse.
‘Feng’ is a seal or title. ‘Jian’ is ‘establish.’ So the translation is like, ‘entitlement establishment (system).’
Meaning, priveleges based on… position.
A system still with us to some extent….
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Andrew Melanson:
September 26th, 2016 at 3:14 pm
Hi, in relation to the Feudal system, I am asking about the word “field”. Although there are direct links to its etymology on other sites, my line of questioning is – could it have come from a contraction of two words (i.e.) “fief hold”? I thought of that the other day when reviewing my mortgage. The phrase freehold keeps coming up, and I wondered if “field” would be a contraction of “fief hold”; a parcel of land given within a fiefdom?
Dan:
May 7th, 2017 at 6:37 pm
Thank you for this site! I’m a translator (from/to English and Portuguese) and I find myself constantly finding superb explanations on words here whenever I just google something.
Michael Cenkner:
May 10th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
Thanks, very nice discussion.
Recently reencountered the word ‘feudalism’ in a Chinese-language blog (manSu zhongwen).
The word (fengJian) was used in Chinese Marxist discourse.
‘Feng’ is a seal or title. ‘Jian’ is ‘establish.’ So the translation is like, ‘entitlement establishment (system).’
Meaning, priveleges based on… position.
A system still with us to some extent….