☼ Concept Map

''feudalism'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

↩ 🔳 🔳 🔳

Primary

⁀➴

''feudalism'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260615002359-00-⌔

feudalism - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

feudalism (countable and uncountable, plural feudalisms)

  • A social system based on personal ownership of resources and personal fealty between a suzerain (lord) and a vassal (subject). Defining characteristics are direct ownership of resources, personal loyalty, and a hierarchical social structure reinforced by religion.
    • ✤ It was the beginning of a feudalism of the range, a barony rude enough, but a glorious one, albeit it began, like all feudalism, in large-handed theft and generous murdering.1
    • ✤ The re-emergence of empire was thwarted by immense topographical variety, coastal confolutions, and wide-openness to the east, which made Christendom difficult to organize and defend as a whole from Viking, barbarian and Islamic attacks round its perimeter; by natural temperateness, which rendered large-scale disasters needing widespread rescue of populations rare (Jones 1981); and by the very devolved political system represented by feudalism, which encouraged the fissipation of whatever larger units did develop.2

Etymology

From feudal + -ism.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfju.də.lɪ.zəm/, [ˈfju.də.lɪ.zm̩]
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1921, Emerson Hough, The Passing of the Frontier: A Chronicle of the Old West, page 34: ↩

  2. 2003, Ian Douglas, Richard John Hugget, Companion Encyclopedia of Geography, page 212: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

• • •