A feudal obligation or tax paid in oats or oat products instead of money, required by a lord from his tenants.
From Old French 'aveage', derived from Latin 'avena' (oat) plus the suffix '-age' (indicating a fee or duty). This term emerged during the medieval feudal system when lords collected payments in goods rather than currency.
Imagine if your landlord said 'pay me in oatmeal instead of rent'—medieval peasants literally did this, and historians can track farming patterns by what crops paid taxes, turning ancient tax records into archaeological gold for understanding what people actually grew.
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