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Fealty - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Fealty : (noun)
1: the loyalty that citizens owe to their country (or subjects
to their sovereign) [syn: allegiance]
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Fealty : \Fe"al*ty\, n. [OE. faute, OF. faut['e], fealt['e],
feel['e], feelteit, fr. L. fidelitas, fr. fidelis faithful.
See Feal, and cf. Fidelity.]
1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the
tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord; the
special oath by which this obligation was assumed;
fidelity to a superior power, or to a government;
loyality. It is no longer the practice to exact the
performance of fealty, as a feudal obligation. --Wharton
(Law Dict. ). Tomlins.
2. Fidelity; constancy; faithfulness, as of a friend to a
friend, or of a wife to her husband.
He should maintain fealty to God. --I. Taylor.
Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps The
fealty of our friends. --tennyson.
Swore fealty to the new government. --Macaulay.
Note: Fealty is distinguished from homage, which is an
acknowledgment of tenure, while fealty implies an oath.
See Homage. --Wharton.
Syn: Homage; loyality; fidelity; constancy.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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FEALTY. Fidelity, allegiance.
2. Under the feudal system, every owner of lands held them of some
superior lord, from whom or from whose ancestors, the tenant had received
them. By this connexion the lord became bound to protect the tenant in the
enjoyment of the land granted to him; and, on the other hand, the tenant was
bound to be faithful to his lord,, and defend him against all his enemies.
This obligation was called fidelitas, or fealty. 1 Bl. Com. 366; 2 Bl. Com.
86; Co. Litt. 67, b; 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1566.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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