geneat

Learned borrowing from Old English ġenēat (“companion, follower, follower in battle; dependant, vassal, tenant who works for a lord”). Cognate with German Genosse (“comrade, etc.”)

geneat (plural geneat or geneats)

1. (historical) A retainer; vassal; one who holds lands of a superior either by service or payment of rent.
   • 1861, C. H. Pearson, Early & Middle Ages Eng. I. 201:

     The tenants, cotsetlas, geburs, and geneats, were the highest among the semiservile.

   • 1872, E. W. Robertson, Hist. Ess. 101:

     The right of the husbandman was a share right, his name was Geneat or sharer in the vill.

   • 1892, F. Seebohm in Hist. Rev. July 458:

     In each manor there is the same division into land in demesne and land in villainage, the inland and the geneat land.

• geneatland

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• negate

• ġenāeot — early

From Proto-West Germanic *ganaut, from Proto-Germanic *ganautaz, equivalent to ġe- +‎ nēat.

• IPA^(key): /jeˈnæ͜ɑːt/

ġenēat m

1. a companion; associate; vassal

• bēodġenēat
• ealdġenēat
• heorþġenēat

• Middle English: net, niet
• → Medieval Latin: neatus
• → English: geneat (learned)