50+ Common Medieval Terms and Definitions

When it comes to what medieval men and women were called, the answer is complicated. Factors like whether they owned land and had noble blood affected what they were called. These are a few common medieval terms for people:

• bailiff - the steward or overseer for a lord
• baron - a lord who held land granted from the crown and served on the king’s privy council
• bordar - a peasant of middle rank who farmed about 10-20 acres
• constable - a man in command of an army
• cottar - a lower ranking peasant; someone who lived in a cottage but had no land to farm
• duke - a member of the aristocracy with royal blood
• earl - the highest title a man without royal blood could earn or inherit
• franklin - a medieval term for a peasant who was wealthy
• gentry - a class of people just below knights
• knight - a man who owed military service to his lord in exchange for his lands
• limner - a person who illuminated manuscripts 
• luparius - a man who hunted wolves 
• squire - a man with an income that was not a knight
• tenant - a man who rented land from the landowner
• vassal - a free man who swore his loyalty to a lord
• warrener - a person who oversaw rabbit warrens (typically farmed for food) 

You can see some of these terms used in a real medieval text in this example from The Statute of Laborers, written in 1351:

"Provided, that in thus retaining their service, the lords are preferred before others of their bondsmen or their land tenants: so, nevertheless that such lords thus retain as many as shall be necessary and not more; and if any man or woman, being thus sought after in service, will not do this, the fact being proven by two faithful men before the sheriffs or the bailiffs of our lord the king, or the constables of the town where this happens to be done,-straightway through them, or some one of them, he shall be taken and sent to the next jail, and there he shall remain in strict custody until he shall find surety for serving in the aforesaid form."

Food played an important role in medieval life, and there are a number of common terms for breads, stews, and other cuisines:

• caudle - a drink made with heated milk
• civet - a spicy or sharply flavored medieval stew
• horse bread - bread made not from wheat flour, but from beans and other legumes
• muscadine - a type of wine that was very sweet
• pandemain - some of the highest quality bread, made from flour that was sifted multiple times
• pottage - a soup or stew made in a pot
• spartle - the stick the cook would use to stir the pottage during cooking
• trencher - round bread that also served as a plate or bowl

You can see one of these terms in use in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer:

"When will the gaoler bring us out pottage?

Is there no crumb of bread that you did keep?"

There was little separation of church and state in the Medieval period. Religion — Christianity in particular — influenced legislation, cultural practices, and moral norms. Due to this intense interconnection, there are many unique religious terms that appear during this time:

• alms - gifts such as money, food, clothing, etc. given directly to the poor, or donations awarded to the church to be distributed to the poor 
• apostate - a person who abandons previously held religious beliefs 
• book of hours - a prayer book used for private worship 
• ecclesiastical court - a legal court that presided over spiritual and religious crimes 
• eucharist - communion 
• heretic - someone whose religious beliefs or cultural practices did not align with the Catholic Church's. 
• indulgences - a writ by which one's sins were absolved by the Catholic Church in exchange for a sum of money 
• transubstantiation - the act whereby a piece of bread and a cup of wine are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ 

Seeing as religion was intricately tied to everyday life in the Medieval period, there are a multitude of examples in the historical record that reference these terms. Perhaps the most famous is Martin Luther's late-Medieval 95 Theses, in which he challenges the Catholic Church's practices and calls for major reform: 

"Thus those indulgence preachers are in error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences."

There are a number of medieval terms for land and distance measurement, some of which, like “acre,” are still in use today.

• acre - still used today to measure land; the amount of land an ox could plow in a single day
• appanage - the estate with land belonging to a royal prince
• benefice - a land grant given to members of the aristocracy
• bovate - approximately 15 acres; the amount of land an ox and plow could keep in cultivation for an entire year
• furlong - the length of a furrow from a plow (furrow-long); 220 feet
• hide - the area of land necessary to support a family for a year — varied based on land quality; usually about 120 acres
• hundred - an area representing 100 hides that made up part of a shire
• league - the distance a person could walk in about an hour, which varied between a mile and a half and three miles
• waste - land that could not be cultivated or used for farming

You can see one of these terms used in medieval documents, such as Assize of Clarendon, written in 1166:

"In the first place the aforesaid king Henry, by thee counsel of all his barons, for the preservation of peace and the observing of justice, has decreed that an inquest shall be made throughout the separate counties, and throughout the separate hundreds, through twelve of the more lawful men of the hundred, and through four of the more lawful men of each township, upon oath that they will speak the truth…."

Crime and punishment in the Medieval period didn't look terribly different from our modern judicial systems. While there were many similarities, there are some distinct terms and phrases used in Medieval judicial affairs that we don't see often today: 

• brice - disturbing the peace; also a fine issued for said crime 
• common law - the laws that rule over an entire realm/country 
• heresy - a crime against the presiding religious beliefs 
• mō̆rther - murder 
• primogeniture - a common law which states that the eldest son shall inherit his father's estate and/or office 
• temporalia - possessions, such as land or mills, that someone makes money off of 
• trespass - the modern equivalent to a misdemeanor 

You can find examples of these judicial terms across many medieval trial transcripts, including Joan d'Arc's:

"Following the masters' advice, we appointed the esteemed and wise Master Jean d'Estivet, canon of the cathedral churches of Bayeux and Beauvais, as promoter or procurator general in this trial, and the learned Master Jean de la Fontaine, master of arts and licentiate of canon law, as counsel, steward, and examiner." 

Surprisingly, people have only been using the word “hello” since 1832, according to The History of Early English, but they have been greeting one another for far longer. Unsurprisingly, people have been expressing their affection in words for just as long. These are a few Middle English greetings and medieval terms of endearment:

• culver - term of endearment; dove
• go thy way - goodbye
• good morrow - good day
• gramercy - thank you
• hale be thou - be healthy
• how fare ye’? - how are you?
• lambkin - term of endearment; little lamb
• mine own heart’s root - term of endearment; the root of my heart

You can see several examples of greetings in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, including this line:

"Go now thy wey, and speed thee heer-aboute"

Whether you’re attending a Renaissance fair, trying to get some context for reading a Middle English text, planning a medieval wedding, or just curious about the customs of your ancestors, learning about common medieval terms is fascinating and fun. For more interesting phrases that are still in use today, take a look at expressions we owe to Shakespeare. Despite writing just after the end of the medieval period, he offers some great vocabulary words that were probably in use during the Middle Ages.