rerefief
English edit
Etymology edit
From French arrière-fief. See rear (“hinder”), and fief.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
rerefief (plural rerefiefs)
- (Scots law, historical) A fief held of a superior feudatory; a fief held by an undertenant.
- 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
- by these means the feodal polity was greatly extended; these inferior feudatories (who held what are called in the Scots law "rerefiefs") being under similar obligations of fealty
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “rerefief”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)