glebe

[gleeb] /glib/
noun
1.
Also called glebe land. Chiefly British. the cultivable land owned by a parish church or ecclesiastical benefice.
2.
Archaic. soil; field.
Origin
1275-1325; Middle English < Latin glēba, glaeba clod of earth
Related forms
glebeless, adjective
Examples from the web for glebe
  • Another possibility is that glebe farm was originally built as a rectory.
British Dictionary definitions for glebe

glebe

/ɡliːb/
noun
1.
(Brit) land granted to a clergyman as part of his benefice
2.
(poetic) land, esp when regarded as the source of growing things
Word Origin
C14: from Latin glaeba
Word Origin and History for glebe
n.

c.1300, from Old French glebe, from Latin gleba, glaeba "clod, lump of earth," from PIE *glebh- "to roll into a ball" (cf. Latin globus "sphere;" Old English clyppan "to embrace;" Lithuanian glebys "armful," globti "to embrace, support"). Earliest English sense is "land forming a clergyman's benefice," on notion of soil of the earth as source of vegetable products.