maegth

See also: mægþ and mægþ-

English

Etymology

From Old English mǣġþ (family group, clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people), from Proto-Germanic *mēgaz (kin). Cognate with Middle Dutch maech, Dutch maag, Old High German māg, Gothic 𐌼𐌴𐌲𐍃 (mēgs, son-in-law), equivalent to maeg + -th.

Noun

maegth (plural maegths or maegthe)

  1. (historical) In Anglo-Saxon England, an extended family, a kind of kindred group; clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people
    • 1885, Thomas Edward Scrutton, The Influence of Roman Law on the Law of England, page 41:
      Every person had two maegthe, []
    • 1923, W. S. Holdsworth, Historical English Law, II. 36:
      The kindred of a person is known as the ‘maegth’.
    • 1991, Henry Royston Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, page 307:
      The wider kin, the mægth to seven degrees of kindred, may have been little more than a group that paid and stood guarantors.

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