The difference between Bailiff and Seneschal

When used as nouns, bailiff means a reeve, the chief officer executing the decisions of any english court in the period following the norman conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period, whereas seneschal means a steward, particularly one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.


check bellow for the other definitions of Bailiff and Seneschal

  1. Bailiff as a noun (law enforcement):

    An officer of the court, particularly: A reeve, the chief officer executing the decisions of any English court in the period following the Norman Conquest or executing the decisions of lower courts in the late medieval and early modern period. A high bailiff: an officer of the county courts responsible for executing warrants and court orders, appointed by the judge and removable by the Lord Chancellor. A bound bailiff: a deputy bailiff charged with debt collection. Any law enforcement officer charged with courtroom security and order. A huissier de justice or other foreign officer of the court acting as either a process server or as courtroom security.

  2. Bailiff as a noun (obsolete):

    A public administrator, particularly: A king's man: any officer nominated by the English Crown. The chief officer of a hundred in medieval England. The title of the mayor of certain English towns. The title of the castellan of certain royal castles in England. The chief justice and president of the legislature on Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands. The High Bailiff of the Isle of Man. A bailie: an alderman in certain Scottish towns. An appointee of the French king administering certain districts of northern France in the Middle Ages. A head of a district ("bailiwick") of the Knights Hospitaller; a head of one of the national associations ("tongues") of the Hospitallers' headquarters on Rhodes or Malta. A landvogt in the medieval German states.

  3. Bailiff as a noun (historical):

    A private administrator, particularly A steward: the manager of a medieval manor charged with collecting its rents, etc. An overseer: a supervisor of tenant farmers, serfs, or slaves, usually as part of his role as steward (see above). The foreman or overman of a mine.

  4. Bailiff as a noun (UK, slang):

    Any debt collector, regardless of his or her official status.

  1. Seneschal as a noun (historical):

    A steward, particularly one in charge of a medieval nobleman's estate.

  2. Seneschal as a noun (historical):

    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.