Seneschal

//ˈsɛnəʃəl// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A steward, particularly (historical) one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.

    "Beside stood seneschals, the appointed witnesses of the ensuing games."

  2. 2
    the chief steward or butler of a great household wordnet
  3. 3
    An officer of the crown in late medieval and early modern France who served as a kind of governor and chief justice of the royal court in Normandy and Languedoc. historical

Synonyms

All synonyms
majordomoattorneybailiffbutlerchamberlaincurator

Example

More examples

"He was the last Arch Seneschal of the Holy Roman Empire."

Etymology

From Middle English seneschal (recorded in English since 1393), from Old French seneschal, from Medieval Latin siniscalcus, from Frankish *siniskalk, from Proto-Germanic *siniskalkaz, from Proto-Germanic *siniz (“senior”) + *skalkaz (“servant”); latter term as in marshal. As an officer of the French crown, via French sénéchal.

Related phrases

early modernin charge

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