thegn
/θeɪn
/noun historical
An English thane.That is not to say that the English thegn was any less formidable than the Norman knight, as Hastings was to show....
- Thousands of English thegns, between the mid-ninth and the mid-eleventh centuries, came into possession of their own small estates.
- It was not a time of men challenging each other in heroic duels (was there ever a time like this?), but a time for the thegns to organise repairs to bridges and roads.
Origin
Mid 19th century: modern representation of Old English theg(e)n, adopted to distinguish the Old English use of thane from the Scots use made familiar by Shakespeare.