seneschal
/ˈsɛnəʃəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.97 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A steward, particularly (historical) one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.
noun
An officer of the crown in late medieval and early modern France who served as a kind of governor and chief justice of the royal court in Normandy and Languedoc.
Example Sentences
- "Beside stood seneschals, the appointed witnesses of the ensuing games."
- "[…] so the very keenest seneskal can't see no sign […]"
- "It was in the queer little Church of Vera Cruz, beneath the castle, that the Knights Templar performed their secret rites of chivalry, standing vigil over their arms all night, in all the mysterious splendour of seneschal, gonfalon, and accolade."
Etymology
From Middle English seneschal (recorded in English since 1393), from Old French seneschal, from Medieval Latin siniscalcus, from Frankish *siniskalk, from Proto-Germanic *siniskalkaz, from Proto-Germanic *siniz (“senior”) + *skalkaz (“servant”); latter term as in marshal. As an officer of the French crown, via French sénéchal.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: seneschal, siniscalcus, *siniskalk, *siniskalkaz, *siniz, sénéchal