seigneur

American  

[seen-yur, seyn-, se-nyœr] / sinˈyɜr, seɪn-, sɛˈnyœr /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

plural

seigneurs

1. a lord, especially a feudal lord.

2. (in French Canada) a holder of a seigneury.

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seigneur British  

/ sɛˈnjɜː, sɛɲœr /

noun

1. a feudal lord, esp in France

2. (in French Canada, until 1854) the landlord of an estate that was subdivided among peasants who held their plots by a form of feudal tenure

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Other Word Forms

• seigneurial adjective

Etymology

Origin of seigneur

1585–95; < French < Vulgar Latin *senior lord. See senior

Example Sentences

So I could not have been more thrilled when #MeToo ripped away the curtain on the murky transgressions and diminishments that women had endured in the droit du seigneur era.

From New York Times • May 2, 2020

But the way the campaign played out, with the release of the tape, it was almost as if people were talking about droit du seigneur all over again.

From New York Times • Nov. 25, 2016

He is interrupted by the arrival of Figaro and a group of peasants praising him for abolishing the droit de seigneur.

From The Guardian • Aug. 14, 2012

This new cinema will be cut and pasted together in a world beyond copyright, where droit d'auteur will soon seem as medieval as droit du seigneur.

From The Guardian • Jul. 12, 2011

He was grateful to Alga� in that matter of the sciatic nerve, but it was not his place as a seigneur to make morning calls on a dependant.

From The Maid of Honour (Vol. 3 of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Wingfield, Lewis