Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FEUD, n. [Usually supposed to be composed of the Teutonic fee, goods, reward, and ead or odh. W. eizaw, possession, property. But if feuds had been given as rewards for services, that consideration would have vested the title to the land in the donee. Yet feud is not a Teutonic or Gothic word, being found among none of the northern nations of Europe. This word originated in the south of Europe, whether in France, Spain or Italy, may perhaps be ascertained by writings of the middle ages, which I do not possess. It probably originated among the Franks, or in Lombardy or Italy, and certainly among men who studied the civil law. In Italian, a feoffee is called fede-commessario, a trust-commissary; fede-commesso, is a feoffment, a trust estate; Sp. fideicomiso, a feoffment. These words are the fidei-commissarius, fidei-commissum, of the Digest and Codex. In Spanish, fiado signifies security given for another or bail; al fiado, on trust fiador, one who trusts; feudo, a fief, fee or feud; Port. id. In Norman, fidz de chevalers signifies knight's fees. Feud, then, and fee, which is a contraction of it, is a word formed from the L. fides, It. fede, Sp. fe, Norm. fei, faith, trust, with had, state, or ead or odh, estate; and a feud is an estate in trust, or on condition, which coincides nearly in sense with the northern word, G. lehen, D. leen, Sw. län, Dan. lehn, Eng. loan. From the origin of this word, we see the peculiar propriety of calling the donee fidelis, and his obligation to his lord fidelitas, whence fealty.]

A fief; a fee; a right to lands or hereditaments held in trust, or on the terms of performing certain conditions; the right which a vassal or tenant has to the lands or other immovable thing of his lord, to use the same and take the profits thereof hereditarily, rendering to his superior such duties and services as belong to military tenure, &c., the property of the soil always remaining in the lord or superior. From the foregoing explanation of the origin of the word, result very naturally the definition of the term, and the doctrine of forfeiture, upon non-performance of the conditions of the trust or loan.