Anc. Irish and Gaelic Law. Also 6 taniste, tanistih, tanest, taynist, 9 tanaist; cf. TANISTER. [ad. Irish and Gael. tánaiste, OIr. tanaise, -aiste, anything parallel or second to another; the next heir to an estate.] The successor apparent to a Celtic chief, usually the most vigorous adult of his kin, elected during the lifetime of the chief: see TANISTRY.
1538. St. Papers Hen. VIII., III. 56. Murghe Obreene, the said Obrenes broder, being the tanest, or successour to Obreene. Ibid. (1543), 481. He have restored this berer, his eldist brother, to the office or rombe of Taniste.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 612/1. The Tanistih hath also a share of the country allotted unto him.
1646. Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebell., 9, note. In every Irish country there was a Lord or Chieftain, and a Tanist, who was his successor apparent…. He that was most active, of greatest power, and had most followers, alwayes caused himself to be chosen Tanist.
1761–2. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), III. xlvi. 690. The chieftains and the tanists, though drawn from the principal families, were not hereditary, but were established by election, or, more properly speaking, by force and violence.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, IV. vi. The Tanist he to great O’Neale.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., xxx. 373. Any one of the reigning family might succeed the chief. The heir-apparent was nominated by election among the tribe in the chief’s lifetime, and called ‘tanist.’
b. Comb., as tanist-abbot (see quot.); tanist-stone, a name given to some large monoliths, popularly supposed to mark the spot where tanists were formerly elected.
a. 1627. C. Mageoghegan, trans. Ann. Clonmacnois, 147. He was called in Irish tanaise abbaid, tanist [lit. second] of the abbot, or seenab [= secundus abbas], in anglo-irish, tanist-abbot.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. v. 140. The Tanist-Stones, where the new chief or king was elected.
1885. Blackw. Mag., July, 116/1. In Scotland, Tanist stones … have been frequently found.
Hence Tanistship, the office or dignity of a tanist. So Tanistic a., of, pertaining to, or proceeding by the system of tanistry.
1585. in Hardiman, O’Flaherty’s Iar-Connaught (1846), 313. That the … titles of captayneships, taynistships … be utterlie abollyshed.
1590. Sir J. Perrot, in Carew MSS. (1869), 28. The captainries and tanistships.
1881. Athenæum, 29 Jan., 157/3. The ancient earldoms were not partible, and the succession was tanistic.
