liege

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a person holding a fief; a person who owes allegiance and service to a feudal lord
  2. noun a feudal lord entitled to allegiance and service
  3. noun city in eastern Belgium; largest French-speaking city in Belgium

Etymology

From Middle English liege, lege, lige, from Anglo-Norman lige, from Old French liege (“liege, free”), from Middle High German ledic, ledec (“free, empty, vacant”) (Modern German ledig (“unmarried”)) from Proto-Germanic *liþugaz (“flexible, free, unoccupied”). Akin to Old Frisian leþeg, leþoch (“free”), Old English liþiġ (“flexible”), Old Norse liðugr (“free, unhindered”), Old Saxon lethig (“idle”), Low German leddig (“empty”), Middle Dutch ledich (“idle, unemployed”) (Dutch ledig (“empty”) and leeg (“empty”)), Middle English lethi (“unoccupied, at leisure”). An alternate etymology traces the Old French word to Late Latin laeticus (“of or relating to a semifree colonist in Gaul”), from Latin laetus (“a semi-free colonist”), from Gothic *𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (*lēts) (attested in derivatives such as 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (fralēts)), from Proto-Germanic *lētaz (“freeman; bondsman, serf”), from *lētaną (“to let; free; release”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

vassal, liegeman, liege subject, feudatory

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