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

A petition from women demanding that the United States introduce droit de seigneur.

From Washington Post

His method: Persuade executives to appease him personally and allow him to take credit for their job creation, in a kind of modern economic version of droit de seigneur.

From Washington Post

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

He and I started back across the fields, preceding the others like two seigneurs.

From Literature

The word derives from the French seigneur, which means “lord.”

From Forbes