socage

Definitions

In the Middle Ages (and chiefly but not exclusively medieval England), a legal system whereby a tenant would pay a rent or do some agricultural work for the landlord.

countable, historical, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] this quiz with all the strange old terms in it, curtilage and messuage and socage and fee simple and fee tail and feoffee and copyhold and customary freehold and mortmain and devises and lex loci rei sitae.”

“The rest⟳ was held by tenants, sometimes called "sokemen" from the "soke" or jurisdiction; and said to hold⟳ in "soccage" because they gave plough-service by way of rent⟳.”

CEFR level