feu
Meaning
(in Scottish law) a right to the use of land in return for a fixed annual payment.
(historical) a perpetual lease at a fixed rent.
Usage
The estate was held under a feu from the crown.
He paid a small annual feu duty for the plot of land.
The system of feu tenure was abolished in Scotland in 2000.
Etymology
The word 'feu' entered English from Scots law, which borrowed it from the Old French 'feu', meaning a 'fief' or a 'land held in tenure'. This Old French term itself descended from the Medieval Latin 'feudum', the root of the English word 'feudal'. The core concept, a grant of land in return for service or rent, traveled with the term. In its specific Scottish legal context, 'feu' came to denote a distinctive form of perpetual land tenure for a fixed, non-military annual payment, preserving the ancient feudal concept of landholding but within a more commercialized framework.
Analysis
The word is a simplex loanword from Old French. It cannot be meaningfully segmented into productive morphemes within modern English spelling.