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Glite Dictionary
copyhold

copyhold

1 9.9
An old English system where a person held land from the lord and had a court copy as proof
  • noun
  • /ˈkɒp.i.həʊld/
  • Archaic
: copia de tenencia
  • The farmer's copyhold allowed him to cultivate the land while adhering to the rules set by the lord of the manor.

Examples

  • In medieval England, peasants often held their land as copyhold, which meant they had to follow the manor's customs.

  • While in Springfield, fifty acres were not enough to eke out a living on the produce of that land alone, the possession of fifty acres in Earls Colne, be it as copyhold or freehold, represented the landed wealth of a substantial yeoman.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Superior copyhold.

    Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)

  • The local community was bound together by the parish and its church, the poor-law system, and the two local manors and their administration of the free-and copyhold of Earls Colne.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Under the copyhold system, tenants had security of tenure and could pass their rights to their heirs.

Surface Forms

copyhold singular
copyholds plural

Morphology

copyhold = copy + hold (semi-transparent) = copy + hold

Formed from 'copy' + 'hold' (a holding evidenced by a copy), but the sense is a specialized historical legal term not freely inferable by all learners.

Etymology

Copyhold comes from the two parts copy and hold. The part hold means 'to have', and a tenant's right to land was shown by a copy of the manor court record, so copyhold means holding land because you had a written copy as proof.