esne

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, *asunz (“reward; day labourer”), 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 𐌰𐍃𐌽𐌴𐌹𐍃 (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.

esne (plural esnes)

1. (Anglo-Saxon, historical) A hireling of servile status; slave.
   • 1818, Samuel Heywood, A dissertation upon the distinctions in society:

     To an esne, therefore, I refer the entry in Doomsday-book, that at Chester, if a male or female slave shall do any [...]

   • 1875, William Stubbs, The constitutional history of England, in its origin and development:

     [...] of British extraction captured or purchased, — or of the common German stock descended from the slaves of the first colonists: the esne or slave who works for hire; [...]

   • 2011, David Anthony Edgell Pelteret, Slavery in Early Mediaeval England:

     [...] insist that in the event of the death of an esne his full value had to be paid.

• Nees, eens, seen, sene, snee

From Proto-Basque *ezene

esne

1. milk