1.
[syn: villeinage, villainage]
2. tenure by which a villein held land;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Villanage \Vil"lan*age\ (?; 48), n. [OF. villenage, vilenage.
See Villain.]
1. (Feudal Law) The state of a villain, or serf; base
servitude; tenure on condition of doing the meanest
services for the lord. [In this sense written also
villenage, and villeinage.]
[1913 Webster]
I speak even now as if sin were condemned in a
perpetual villanage, never to be manumitted.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Some faint traces of villanage were detected by the
curious so late as the days of the Stuarts.
--Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
2. Baseness; infamy; villainy. [Obs.] --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
villeinage
n 1: the legal status or condition of servitude of a villein or
feudal serf [syn: villeinage, villainage]
2: tenure by which a villein held land