Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A freeman granted land by the king in return for military service in Anglo-Saxon England.
  • noun A man ranking above an ordinary freeman and below a nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England.
  • noun A feudal lord or baron in Scotland.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In early English history, a member of a rank above that of the ordinary freeman, and differing from that of the athelings, or hereditary ancient nobility.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dignitary under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England. Of these there were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Conquest, this title was disused, and baron took its place.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun in Anglo-Saxon England, a man holding lands from the king, or from a superior in rank. There were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Norman Conquest, this title was no longer used, and baron took its place.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a feudal lord or baron
  • noun a man ranking above an ordinary freeman and below a noble in Anglo-Saxon England (especially one who gave military service in exchange for land)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English thegn; see tek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English þeġen, þegn, from Proto-Germanic *þegnaz (“man, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *teke-, *give birth. Compare Dutch degen, German Degen, Icelandic þegn.

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Examples

  • ˜Master,™ he called the thane, but had never thought of him as such.

    Stormblade Berberick, Nancy Varian 1988

  • While, since thegn and thane are both archaisms, I prefer the former; not only for the same reason that induces Sir Francis Palgrave to prefer it, viz., because it is the more etymologically correct; but because we take from our neighbours the Scotch, not only the word thane, but the sense in which we apply it; and that sense is not the same that we ought to attach to the various and complicated notions of nobility which the Anglo-Saxon comprehended in the title of thegn.

    Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • While, since thegn and thane are both archaisms, I prefer the former; not only for the same reason that induces Sir Francis Palgrave to prefer it, viz., because it is the more etymologically correct; but because we take from our neighbours the Scotch, not only the word thane, but the sense in which we apply it; and that sense is not the same that we ought to attach to the various and complicated notions of nobility which the Anglo-Saxon comprehended in the title of thegn.

    Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Volume 01 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • A thane was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state.

    King Alfred of England Abbott, Jacob, 1803-1879 1849

  • A thane was a sort of chieftain in the Saxon state.

    King Alfred of England Makers of History Jacob Abbott 1841

  • At least Shakespeare used 'thane', so anyone who has ever seen or read the Scottish Play may have come across it.

    Archaic terminology in historical fiction Carla 2006

  • At least Shakespeare used 'thane', so anyone who has ever seen or read the Scottish Play may have come across it.

    Archive 2006-08-01 Carla 2006

  • I bowed to him, and he took my hand, calling me "thane" in all good faith.

    King Olaf's Kinsman A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in the Days of Ironside and Cnut 1884

  • "Then," he went on, "come you to the hall door and bide there while I go in and call the thane thither.

    A Thane of Wessex 1884

  • I want to start a membership site and I hear they are better thane-junkie with that.

    How to get started selling your stuff online in like 10 minutes | Johnny B. Truant 2009

Comments

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  • a good Tolkien word

    April 30, 2007

  • John Ford's classic reinterpretation of Macbeth as a Western

    May 4, 2008

  • also spelled “thegn

    December 7, 2011

  • Pippin's father was this in Lord Of The Rings.

    June 10, 2012