1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fief
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| ←Fiduciary | 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 10 Fief |
Field, Cyrus West→ |
| See also Fiefdom on Wikipedia, fief on Wiktionary, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer. |
FIEF, a feudal estate in land, land held from a superior (see Feudalism). The word is the French form, which is represented in Medieval Latin as feudum or feodum, and in English as “fee” or “feu” (see Fee). The A. Fr. feoffer, to invest with a fief or fee, has given the English law terms “feoffee” and “feoffment” (q.v.).
