Dictionary

geneat en · NOUN

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English ġenēat (“companion, follower, follower in battle; dependant, vassal, tenant who works for a lord”). Cognate with German Genosse (“comrade, etc.”)

Meanings

1. (historical) A retainer; vassal; one who holds lands of a superior either by service or payment of rent.
   • The right of the husbandman was a share right, his name was Geneat or sharer in the vill. 1872, E. W. Robertson, Hist. Ess. 101:
   • In each manor there is the same division into land in demesne and land in villainage, the inland and the geneat land. 1892, F. Seebohm in Hist. Rev. July 458
   • The tenants, cotsetlas, geburs, and geneats, were the highest among the semiservile. 1861, C. H. Pearson, Early & Middle Ages Eng. I. 201:

Forms

Deriveds

geneatland