Pronounced: VELT-ahn-shoo-oong, noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but some may be familiar with it
Yesterday’s word
The word corvée means
- unpaid labor due from a feudal vassal to his lord
- labor extracted in lieu of taxes by public authorities especially for highway construction or repair
First usage
The word goes back to the early 1300s
Background / Comments
The word comes from French; in the early 1700s, it gained the roadwork sense
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 