seigneur
[seen-yur, seyn-; French se-nyœr]
- a lord, especially a feudal lord.
- (in French Canada) a holder of a seigneury.
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Origin of seigneur
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for seigneurial
Historical Examples
But we have much to examine ere we penetrate the seigneurial hall.
Life on a Mediaeval BaronyWilliam Stearns Davis
Everything in your personality was grand, seigneurial, immense in scale.
Musical PortraitsPaul Rosenfeld
They lived in poor, mean cabins, far from the towns and under the protection of a seigneurial chteau or abbey.
Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre and the Basque ProvincesFrancis Miltoun
Naturally its powers were greater or less according as the town was royal, seigneurial, or communal.
Guilds in the Middle AgesGeorge Renard
The diamonds prove worthless, but Cartier receives a title and retires to a seigneurial mansion at St. Malo.
Canada: the Empire of the NorthAgnes C. Laut
seigneur
- a feudal lord, esp in France
- (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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Word Origin
C16: from Old French, from Vulgar Latin senior, from Latin: an elderly man; see senior
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for seigneurial
seigneur
n.
"feudal landowner in France," 1590s, from Middle French seigneur, from Old French seignor (see seignior). Related: Seigneuress.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper