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Webster 1913 Edition

Seneschal

Sen′es-chal

,
Noun.
[OF.
seneschal
, LL.
seniscalcus
, of Teutonic origin; cf. Goth.
sineigs
old,
skalks
, OHG.
scalch
, AS.
scealc
. Cf.
Senior
,
Marshal
.]
An officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, in the Middle Ages, who had the superintendence of feasts and domestic ceremonies; a steward. Sometimes the seneschal had the dispensing of justice, and was given high military commands.
Then marshaled feast
Served up in hall with sewers and
seneschale
.
Milton.
Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called baitiffs, or
seneschals
, who acted as the king’s lieutenants in his demains.
Hallam.

Webster 1828 Edition

Seneschal

SEN'ESCHAL

,
Noun.
A steward; an officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, who has the superintendance of feasts and domestic ceremonies. In some instances, the seneschal is an officer who has the dispensing of justice, as the high seneschal of England, &c.

Definition 2024

seneschal

seneschal

English

Alternative forms

Noun

seneschal ‎(plural seneschals)

  1. A steward, particularly (historical) one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.
    • 1884, Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Chapter 35
      ...so the very keenest seneskal can't see no sign...
  2. (historical) 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.

Synonyms

Derived terms

See also

  • (equivalent medieval office in northern France): bailiff

Translations

Old French

Noun

seneschal m ‎(oblique plural seneschaus or seneschax or seneschals, nominative singular seneschaus or seneschax or seneschals, nominative plural seneschal)

  1. seneschal
    • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:
      "Oïl, mout m'an sovient il bien.
      Seneschaus, savez vos an rien?
      Yes, I remember it well
      Senschal, do you know anything about it?

Etymology

From Middle English seneschal (recorded in English since 1393), from Old French seneschal, from Medieval Latin siniscalcus ‎(Frankish), from Proto-Germanic *siniz ‎(“senior”) + *skalkaz ‎(“servant”); latter term as in marshal. As an officer of the French crown, via French sénéchal.

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