Friday, April 03, 2015

A to Z Challenge: Corvée

This month brings the A to Z Challenge, which I choose to meet with a series of words that thus far may have escaped your attention, and deservedly so. Today's word you'll likely never need is

Corvée: Unpaid labor due from a feudal vassal to his lord. Today it can mean forced labor in lieu of taxes, in particular on public roads.

The word is spelled the same in French and means drudgery.

8 comments:

JJ Bach said...

This is like the modern day "honey do" list. I should be able to work this in to my vocab, as I am staring at my corvée list right now!

Bob Sanchez said...

I didn't think of it that way, Jeff! I do hope your wife is a kind taskmaster.

S. L. Hennessy said...

Terrible meaning but beautiful word!

Good luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Wish they'd force more tax evaders to work on our roads.

nashvillecats2 said...

Most interesting word Bob, that's something new I have learned to-day.

Also thanks for visiting my humble blog earlier, much appreciated.

loverofwords said...

Love Jeff's comment. Am looking forward to more words that are new to me.

D.G. Hudson said...

Sure looks like drudgery in that illustration! Same as cleaning for 'showing' a house - labor intensive even with our modern tools. . .

Crepe Suzettes, btw, are a dessert crepe, frequently flamed before serving and I think they have a dash of brandy to help with the flaming. They are good.

Bob Sanchez said...

I knew crepe suzettes were something good.