Definition
A Latin verb of medieval legal Latin meaning "to enfeoff" — that is, to make a formal transfer of a freehold estate in land by the ceremony of feoffment. The term appears in Latin legal instruments and records as the infinitive form of the act of investing another person with a fee, accomplished historically through the delivery of seisin on the land itself. It is effectively synonymous with FEOFFARE, of which it appears to be a variant spelling.
Common Confusion
FEOFARE and FEOFFARE are variant spellings of the same Latin term and should be treated as identical in meaning. Burrill's own entry for FEOFARE redirects to FEOFFARE, confirming this. Researchers encountering either form in manuscript records or early printed legal instruments are reading the same operative word. The variation is orthographic, not substantive, and reflects the inconsistency common in medieval and early modern Latin legal writing.
Why It Matters in Research
This term exists almost exclusively in Latin legal records — deeds, charters, inquisitions post mortem, and plea rolls from the medieval and early modern English common law tradition. Researchers working in these sources should treat FEOFARE and FEOFFARE as interchangeable and trace both spellings when searching. The term will not appear in post-feoffment property law contexts; once the Statute of Uses (1536) and later the Statute of Frauds (1677) transformed English conveyancing practice, feoffment by livery of seisin declined sharply and the Latin formulary associated with it fell out of active use. By the time English legal dictionaries were being systematically compiled in the nineteenth century, FEOFARE was already a term of historical interest rather than live practice. Researchers using Law Mind's corpus for conveyancing history, medieval tenure, or the evolution of property transfer formalities should anchor their work at FEOFFARE and FEOFFMENT, where the doctrine is fully developed, and treat FEOFARE as a variant form pointing back to those terms.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the entirety of available historical dictionary coverage for this specific spelling: "L. Lat. To enfeoff. Spelman. See Feoffare." The entry is a pure cross-reference, citing Spelman's Glossarium Archaiologicum as the underlying authority and directing the reader to FEOFFARE for substantive treatment. No independent doctrinal content is attached to this spelling in the historical dictionary record. The brevity of Burrill's treatment is itself informative: it confirms that FEOFARE was recognized as a legitimate Latin legal term but was not accorded independent significance apart from its root concept. Researchers should not expect richer coverage of this precise form in other period dictionaries; the substance lives under FEOFFMENT and its derivatives.