In medieval England, a payment or fine, especially one paid to a feudal lord for a privilege or as compensation.
From Old English, possibly related to an obsolete Germanic root. The word was used in legal documents of medieval England but is now entirely archaic and appears only in historical texts.
Gersum payments were so varied and arbitrary that medieval lords essentially invented the first 'terms and conditions' documents just to spell out what fees a peasant owed.
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