liege
/liːd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.95 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A free and independent person; specifically, a lord paramount; a sovereign.
adj
Sovereign; independent; having authority or right to allegiance.
adj
Serving an independent sovereign or master; bound by a feudal tenure; obliged to be faithful and loyal to a superior, such as a vassal to his lord; faithful.
name
Alternative form of Liège, a city in Belgium.
Example Sentences
- "More health and happiness betide my liege / Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him!"
- "Kings, my liege, may take a lesson from him"
- "a liege lord"
- "She look'd as grand as doomsday and as grave: / And he, he reverenced his liege lady there;"
- "a liege man; a liege subject"
- "it was a release by Katherine de Ros in her liege widowhood to Sir Thomas de Stirkeland"
Etymology
From Middle English liege, lege, lige, from Anglo-Norman lige, from Old French liege (“liege, free”), from Middle High German ledic, ledec (“free, empty, vacant”) (Modern German ledig (“unmarried”)) from Proto-Germanic *liþugaz (“flexible, free, unoccupied”). Akin to Old Frisian leþeg, leþoch (“free”), Old English liþiġ (“flexible”), Old Norse liðugr (“free, unhindered”), Old Saxon lethig (“idle”), Low German leddig (“empty”), Middle Dutch ledich (“idle, unemployed”) (Dutch ledig (“empty”) and leeg (“empty”)), Middle English lethi (“unoccupied, at leisure”). An alternate etymology traces the Old French word to Late Latin laeticus (“of or relating to a semifree colonist in Gaul”), from Latin laetus (“a semi-free colonist”), from Gothic *𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (*lēts) (attested in derivatives such as 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (fralēts)), from Proto-Germanic *lētaz (“freeman; bondsman, serf”), from *lētaną (“to let; free; release”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /liːd͡ʒ/
- British English: /liːd͡ʒ/