The story
- Old English · inherited fromhereġeatwa“military equipment, army gear”
- English todayheriot
From Old English hereġeatwa (“military equipment, army gear”). Per Etymonline: "An Anglo-Saxon service of weapons, loaned by the lord to his retainer and repayable to him upon the retainer's death; sense transferred by 13c. to a feudal due upon the death of a tenant, payable to his lord in beasts."
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.