What does "folkland" mean?

Land held in villeinage, being distributed among the folk, or people, at the pleasure of the lord of the manor, and taken back at his discretion.

Folkland

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Land held in villeinage, being distributed among the folk, or people, at the pleasure of the lord of the manor, and taken back at his discretion. UK, countable, historical, uncountable
"The folkland, the national fund, was administered and conveyed conjointly by the king and the witan."

"The folkland, the national fund, was administered and conveyed conjointly by the king and the witan."

From Old English folcland. Equivalent to folk + land.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.