maegth

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.

Anagrams

• maghet