socage

English

Alternative forms

• soccage

Etymology

From Middle English sokage, from Anglo-Norman socage, from soc (“soke”) +‎ -age. More at soke, -age.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɒkɪd͡ʒ/

Noun

socage (countable and uncountable, plural socages)

1. (historical) In the Middle Ages (and chiefly but not exclusively medieval England), a legal system whereby a tenant would pay a rent or do some agricultural work for the landlord.
   • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:

     […] this quiz with all the strange old terms in it, curtilage and messuage and socage and fee simple and fee tail and feoffee and copyhold and customary freehold and mortmain and devises and lex loci rei sitae.

   • 1908, Mary A. M. Marks, “In Saxon Times”, in Landholding in England:

     The rest was held by tenants, sometimes called "sokemen" from the "soke" or jurisdiction; and said to hold in "soccage" because they gave plough-service by way of rent.

Translations

medieval form of land tenure

• Dutch: herendienst (nl) m
• Finnish: torpparius
• German: Frondienst (de) m, Robath, Robot (de) f
• Lithuanian: baũdžiava f, lãžas (lt) m
• Swedish: landboväsende

Further reading

• socage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Old French

Alternative forms

• soccage, sokage

Etymology

soc +‎ -age.

Noun

socage oblique singular, m (oblique plural socages, nominative singular socages, nominative plural socage)

1. socage (system whereby a tenant would pay a rent or do some agricultural work for the landlord)

Descendants

• → Middle English: sokage
  • English: socage, soccage

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (socage)
• socage on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub