Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Anglo-Saxon history, a hireling of servile condition.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Anglo-Saxon, historical A
hireling ofservile status;slave .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Old English esne ("a man of the servile class, a laborer, slave, servant, retainer, a youth, young man, man, scholar"), from Proto-Germanic *asniz, *asnz (“reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *os(e)n-, *es(e)n- (“summer, harvest, harvest-time”). Cognate with Middle Low German asne, asnen ("wages, fixed income"), Old High German asni ("hireling, day labourer, servant"), Gothic (asneis, "a hireling, day labourer"). Related to Old English earnian ("to labor for, strive after, deserve as the reward of labor, merit, earn, win"). More at earn.
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Examples
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It makes me wonder how to conjugate esne. on 11 Apr 2007 at 4:57 pm4Ned he / she / it will have esneed
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Helium collaborative writing 2006
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The young man hurried, was sometimes useful, tillic esne, teorode hwæþre
Archive 2006-07-01 Heo 2006
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