meinie

• mayne, mayné, meiny, meynee, meynie

From Middle English meine, meyne, from Anglo-Norman maigné, meyné et al., Old French mesnie (“household”), from Vulgar Latin *mānsiōnāta, from Latin mānsiō, mānsiōn (“house”). Compare menial.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪni/

meinie (plural meinies)

1. (now rare, Scotland, Ireland) A household, or family.
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum lxiv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X, [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034, page 525:

     And whanne they in the caſtel wyſte hou ſire Palomydes had ſped there was a Ioyeful meyny / and ſoo ſir Palomydes departed / and came to the caſtell of Lonaȝep

2. (archaic or historical) A retinue.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Manciples Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: Printed by [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio xcix, recto, column 2:

     That for the tyraunt is of greater might / By force of meyne, to ſlee downe right / And brenne houſe & home, & make al playn, / Lo therfore is he called a capitayne / And for the outlawe hath but ſmal meyne / And maie not do ſo great an harm, as he / Ne brynge a countrey to ſo great miſchefe / Men callen him an outlawe or a thefe

     That because the tyrant is of greater might / By force of retinue, to slay downright / And burn house and home, and make all level / Lo therefore is he called a captain / And because the outlaw has but a small retinue / And may not do so great a harm as he [the tyrant] / Nor bring a country to so great mischief / Men call him an outlaw or a thief

   • 1965, Jack Robert Lander, The Wars of the Roses,

     And in the evening they went with their simple captain to his lodging; but a certain of his simple and rude meinie abode there all the night [...].

3. (now Scotland) A crowd of people; a rabble.
   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, [Act III, scene i]:

     For the mutable ranke-ſented Meynie, / Let them regard me, as I doe not flatter, / And therein behold themſelues.