Feudal Law. [F. corvée, in 13th c. also corowée:—Romanic corvada, coruada (in a capitulary of Charlemagne):—late L. corrogāta: corrogāta opera requested (i.e., requisitioned) work: f. L. corrogāre, f. cor- together, and intensive + rogāre to ask, request. Mediæval Latinized forms of the F. were corruweia, corrua, croata.]
A day’s work of unpaid labor due by a vassal to his feudal lord; the whole forced labor thus exacted; in France, extended to the statute labor upon the public roads which was exacted of the French peasants before 1776: see quot. 1877.
1340. Ayenb., 38. Kueade lordes … þat be-ulaȝeþ þe poure men … be tayles, be coruees [printed tornees], be lones, be kueade wones.
1794. J. Gifford, Reign Louis XVI., 184. The abolition of the Corvée, in kind, which had for ages been a source of constant oppression to the country people.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 219. The peasant, altho’ personally free … is nevertheless restrained by limited corvees and some pecuniary contributions.
1872. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. II. 202. When, in the early part of the [18th] century, the advantages of a good system of high roads began to be perceived by the Government, the convenient idea came into the heads of the more ingenious among the Intendants of imposing for the construction of the roads, a royal or public corvée analogous to that of private feudalism.
1882. L. Oliphant, Khemi, 138. The canals were kept up by a corvée of the inhabitants.
