seigneur

[ seen-yur, seyn-; French se-nyœr ]
See synonyms for seigneur on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural sei·gneurs [seen-yurz, seyn-; French se-nyœr]. /sinˈyɜrz, seɪn-; French sɛˈnyœr/. (sometimes initial capital letter)
  1. a lord, especially a feudal lord.

  2. (in French Canada) a holder of a seigneury.

Origin of seigneur

1
1585–95; <French <Vulgar Latin *senior lord. See senior

Other words from seigneur

  • sei·gneu·ri·al [seen-yur-ee-uhl, seyn-], /sinˈyɜr i əl, seɪn-/, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use seigneur in a sentence

  • At Montreal, the assumption of the seigneurial duties and privileges was not without difficulty.

  • We lay the night at an inn that must have been at one time a seigneurial mansion, for it had a noble courtyard.

  • This is possible enough, for the period was one when squires exercised "seigneurial rights," and when colleens were complacent.

    The Magnificent Montez | Horace Wyndham
  • Seigneurial rights were being abolished, or rather surrendered, at the very time that this transaction was under consideration.

    East of Paris | Matilda Betham-Edwards
  • At the entrance of the old bourg is a great gateway which originally led to the seigneurial enclosure.

British Dictionary definitions for seigneur

seigneur

/ (sɛˈnjɜː, French sɛɲœr) /


noun
  1. a feudal lord, esp in France

  2. (in French Canada, until 1854) the landlord of an estate that was subdivided among peasants who held their plots by a form of feudal tenure

Origin of seigneur

1
C16: from Old French, from Vulgar Latin senior, from Latin: an elderly man; see senior

Derived forms of seigneur

  • seigneurial, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012