Word Study
socage
CIDE DICTIONARY
socage, n. [From Soc; cf. LL. socagium.].
A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage, as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. [1913 Webster]
" Socage is of two kinds; free socage , where the services are not only certain, but honorable; and villein socage , where the services, though certain, are of a baser nature." Blackstone. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
socage, n. (also soccage) a feudal tenure of land involving payment of rent or other non-military service to a superior.
Etymology
ME f. AF socage f. soc f. OE socn SOKE
ROGET THESAURUS
socage
Possession
N possession, seizin, seisin, ownership, occupancy, hold, holding, tenure, tenancy, feodality, dependency, villenage, villeinage, socage, chivalry, knight service, exclusive possession, impropriation, monopoly, retention, prepossession, preoccupancy, nine points of the law, corner, usucaption, future possession, heritage, inheritance, heirship, reversion, fee, seigniority, primogeniture, ultimogeniture, futures contract, warrant, put, call, option, right of first refusal, bird in hand, uti possidetis, chose in possession, possessing, worth, possessed of, seized of, master of, in possession of, usucapient, endowed with, blest with, instinct with, fraught with, laden with, charged with, possessed, on hand, by one, in hand, in store, in stock, in one's hands, in one's grasp, in one's possession, at one's command, at one's disposal, one's own, unsold, unshared, entbehre gern was du nicht hast, meum et tuum, tuum est.For further exploring for "socage" in Webster Dictionary Online