fealty

• fielty

From Middle English feaute, feute, from Anglo-Norman fëauté, fëuté, from Latin fidēlitās (“faithfulness”; “homage, fealty” in Medieval Latin), from fidēlis (“faithful”) +‎ -tās (noun suffix); the modern form (for expected *feauty /ˈfjuːti/) is due to learned influence. Equivalent to obsolete feal +‎ -ty. Doublet of fidelity.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.əlti/, /ˈfiːlti/

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• Rhymes: -iəlti

fealty (countable and uncountable, plural fealties)

1. Fidelity to one's lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.

   Synonyms: fidelity, allegiance, faithfulness

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 111:

     I doubt whether the most devoted fidelity would bear strict examination as to the short reposes even the most entire fealty permits itself.

   • 2020 November 18, Richard Fausset; Jonathan Martin, “In Georgia, a Republican Feud With Trump at the Center”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     And yet the war has come, full of double-crossing, internecine accusations of lying and incompetence, and a bitter cleavage into factions over the question of how much fealty should be shown to President Trump — and the extent to which Republicans should amplify his false argument that the election in this fast-changing Southern state was stolen from him.

2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed.

• fidelity

• featly