mesne lord
- noun
- Archaic
:
señor intermedio
- During medieval times, a mesne lord collected rent from the tenants living on his land.
Examples
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The mesne lord was responsible for maintaining order among his tenants on the estate.
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As a mesne lord, he governed the land between the powerful baron and his own subordinates.
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In 1829, there were four mesne lords and three rate payers!
Blog text (31)
Synonyms
335
4.8
A man who has a noble title and may sit in the House of Lords
2
9.5
A rich, powerful man who holds land from the king and gives soldiers to the king
1
9.9
A person who holds land and must give loyalty and service to a lord
A person who holds land from a higher lord and gives it to a tenant
How High-Ranking
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'mesne' means 'intermediate' and combined with 'lord' yields 'an intermediate lord' who holds from a superior while owing lordship to tenants. This adjective+noun formation follows a regular, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning despite its specialized legal register.
Etymology
Mesne lord comes from the old word mesne, which meant 'middle', so a mesne lord was literally a 'middle' lord standing between a higher lord and the people who worked the land. That's why today it means a lord who holds land from a higher lord but is also the landlord of his own tenants.