Hist. Forms: 1 þeʓn, þeʓen, -in, (þeng), 1–2 þén, þeiʓn (6–7 theigne), 2 þening, 2–3 þein (6, 9 thein), 3–4 þ-, theyn(e (6 theyn), 4 thain (8 -e), 4–6 thayn(e, 5– thane. See also THEGN. [OE. þeʓn, þeʓen, þén, = OS. thegan, OHG. degan boy, servant, warrior, hero (MHG., G. degen), ON. þegn freeman, liegeman:—OTeut. *þegnz, orig. child, boy, lad:—pre-Teut. *tek-nó (cf. Gr. τέκνον child), f. root tek: tok to beget.
The regular modern repr. of OE. þeʓn, if the word had lived on in spoken use, would have been thain (cf. fain, main, rain), as it actually appears in some writers, chiefly northern, from 1300 to near 1600. But thain was in 15–16th-c. Sc. written thane (in L. thanus), and this form, being used by Boece, Holinshed, and Shakespeare (in Macbeth), was adopted by Selden, Spelman, and the legal antiquaries and historians of the 17th c. to represent the Anglo-Saxon þeʓn, and became the usual form in Eng. history. Recent historians, as Stubbs, Freeman, and Green, in order to distinguish the Anglo-Saxon use from the Sc. in sense 4, have revived the OE. þeʓn as THEGN, q.v.]
† 1. A servant, minister, attendant; in OE. often applied to (Christ’s) disciples. Obs.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss (O.E.T.), 101. Adsaeculam [= assecula], theʓn.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss, 77. Adsaeclum, þeʓn.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., vii. § 2. ʓif þu þonne heora þeʓen beon wilt.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxv. [xxiv.] (1890), 346. Þa bæd he [a monk] his Þeʓn … þæt he in þæm huse him stowe ʓeʓearwode … Þa wundrode se þeʓn.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxiv. 45. Hwa woenes ðu is ʓeleaf-full ðeʓn & hoʓa?
971. Blickl. Hom., 67. Iohannes, se deora þeʓn. Ibid. Lazarus þær was ana sittende mid Hælende & mid his þeʓnum.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xx. 26. Sy he eower þen. Ibid., John ii. 9. Þa þenas soðlice wiston þe þæt wæter hlodon.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 229. An þera twelf Christes þeiȝne se þe was iudas ȝehaten.
c. 1275. Death, 177 in O. E. Misc., 179. Hwer beoþ þine þeynes Þat þe leoue were?
13[?]. Cursor M., 5373 (Cott.). First he was here als our thain [Gött. thrall, Trin. þral].
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), E iij. By certaine Messengers, which they tearmed Theignes; that is to say, Ministers, or Servants.
† 2. A military attendant, follower, or retainer; a soldier. Obs.
Beowulf, 400. Aras þa se rica ymb hine rinc maniʓ þryðlic þeʓna heap.
a. 800. Cynewulf, Elene, 589 (Gr.). Þa cwom þeʓna heap to þam heremeðle.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., V. ii. § 3. Ueriatuses þeʓn þæm oþrum to longe æfterfylʓende, oþ mon his hors under him ofsceat.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. viii. 9. Ic … hæfo under mec ðeʓnas [Vulg. milites].
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., ibid. Ic hæbbe þeʓnas [c. 1160 Hatton þeiʓnes] under nie.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 119/34. Agaso, hors þen.
† b. poet. A warrior, a brave man. Cf. EARL 1 b.
Beowulf, 2709. Swylc sceolde secg wesan, þeʓn æt ðearfe.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., III. vii. § 2. ʓif ʓe swelce þeʓnas sint, swelce ʓe wenað þæt ʓe sien, þonne sceoldon ʓe swa lustlice eowre aʓnu brocu aræfnan.
a. 1272. Luue Ron, 13, in O. E. Misc., 93. Þeos þeines þat weren bolde beoþ aglyden.
3. One who in Anglo-Saxon times held lands of the king or other superior by military service; originally in the fuller designation cyninges þeʓn, ‘king’s thane, military servant or attendant’; in later times simply thegn, as a term of rank, including several grades below that of an ealdorman or eorl (EARL sb. 2) and above that of the ceorl or ordinary freeman.
In this sense the name was superseded by baron and knight in the 12th c., and continued only in historical use, in which it was written thane in the 16th c. Recent historians have revived the OE. form as THEGN.
805. Charter, in O. E. Texts, 442. Beforan wulfrede arcebiscope … & esne cyninges ðeʓne.
a. 900. O. E. Chron., an. 897. Maniʓe þara selestena cynges þena…. Eadulf cynges þeʓn … & Ecgulf cynges hors þeʓn.
971. Blickl. Hom., 211. Wæs his fæder ærest cyninges þeʓn, & ða … he wæs cininges þeʓna aldorman.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. (Z.), 50. Optimas, ðeʓn. Ibid. (c. 1000), Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 155/20. Primas, heafodman, uel þeʓn. Ibid., 155/23. Satrapa, þeʓn.
c. 1029–60. Laws Ranks, c. 1, in Liebermann, Gesctze (1903), 456. Ælc be his mæðe, ʓe eorl ʓe ceorl, ʓe þeʓen ʓe þeoden.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 326. Þeʓnas & ceorlas habbað landmearke.
1066. Writ of Eadweard, in Earle, Land-Charters, 342. Eadward cyningc gret Hereman bisceop, and Harold eorl, and Godric, and calle his þeʓenas [L. version barones].
a. 1100. O. E. Chron., an. 1086 (Laud MS.). Ealle þa rice men ofer call Engla land, arce biscopas, & leodbisceopas, abbodas & eorlas, þeʓnas & cnihtas.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 231. Mid ærlen and aldren, mid cnihten, mid þeinen.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2260. Siþen drenges, and siþen thaynes, And siþen knithes, and siþen sweynes.
c. 1325. Chron. Eng. (Ritson), 583. Alle the theynes of Walschelonde He made bowe to ys honde.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 453. As for twelf Pindman, it was given to the Theyn or Gentleman, bicause his life was valued at Twelve hundreth shillings.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 126. If a Thein so thriued, that he serued the king, and on his message rid in his houshold, if he then had a Thein that followed him … he became an Earle.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 190/1. Harold … slue thirtie gentlemen of honor, or thanes (as they called them).
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 267. The neerest name for Baron was that of Thane, anciently written also Thegn.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 284 (1810), 296. The thane was descended of ancient lineage, and such a one as we call gentleman.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1761), I. App. i. 96. The nobles were called thanes; and were of two kinds, the king’s thanes and lesser thanes.
1809. Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 18. In Loctusu (Loft-house) two Thanes had four carucates to be taxed.
1853. Jos. Stevenson, trans. O. E. Chron., an. 1036. Leofric the earl, and almost all the thanes north of the Thames … chose Harold for chief of all England. Ibid. (1853), trans. Florence of Worcester, an. 897. Ecgulf the kings horse-thane.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., v. 135. There are in the early English laws some traces of a process by which a Ceorl might become Thane.
1888. Earle, Land-Charters, Introd. 71. These words … eorl, gesith, thane, knight, squire, gentleman. The last two run abreast.
4. In Scottish Hist. A person, ranking with the son of an earl, holding lands of the king; the chief of a clan, who became one of the king’s barons.
[1220. Stat. Alex. II., c. 2, in Scot. Statutes (1844), I. 398. De terris episcoporum abbatum baronum militum et thanorum qui de Rege tenent.]
14[?]. transl. of prec. Of þe landis of bischopis abbotis barounis knychtis and thaynis þe quhilkis haldis of þe Kyng.
1422. in Thanes of Cawdor (Spalding Club), 10. To spouse and til haf to your wife, the douchter of the saide Donald thayne of Caldor.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xviii. 1904. Lo, ȝonder þe thayne of Crumbaghty! Ibid., xix. 2318. Makduf of Fif þe thayne.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 894. That Erll was cummyn off trew haill nobill blud, Fra the ald thane, quhilk in his tym was gud.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 637. ‘The Thane of Glames, gude morne to him,’ said scho.
[1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. (S.T.S.), 112, margin. The first nobils in Scotland war called Thani; thay war of the clan cheif…. In ald tymes Dukes war called Thani.]
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. iii. 71. By Sinells death, I know I am Thane of Glamis, But how, of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor liues. Ibid., V. iii. 50. Doctor, the Thanes flye from me.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 73 b. Item, the Cro of ane Earles sonne, or of ane Thane, is ane hundreth kye. Item, the Cro of the sonne of ane Than, is thriescore sax kye.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot., I. (1802), I. 229. The ancient Thanes were the equals and the rivals of their prince.
1810. A. Boswell, Edinburgh, 260. Hill after hill some cunning clerk shall gain, Then, in a mendicant, behold a Thane!
b. transf. to modern persons, in various senses; e.g., a Scottish lord. Often in allusion to Shaks., Macbeth, V. iii. 50. (See above.)
1750. Shenstone, Odes, Rural Elegance, 7. Ye rural thanes that o’er the mossy down Some panting, timorous hare pursue.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Poetry Prof., Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 39. Hail to the Thane, whose patriot skill Can break all nations to his will.
1839. Ld. Brougham, Statesm. Geo. III., Dundas, I. 232. He [Pitt] held the proxies of many Scottish Peers in open opposition! Well might his colleague exclaim to the hapless Addington in such unheard-of troubles, ‘Doctor, the Thanes fly from us.’
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., lxiii. II. 455. Sometimes however he is rebuffed by the powers at Washington and then his State thanes fly from him.
5. Comb. Thane-right, the legal rights and privileges of a thane; Thane-wer [OE. þeʓnwer], the wer-gild of a thane (sense 3).
1008. [see THEGNWER].
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), II. xii. 234, note. His thane-wer, and thane-right in life and in the grave means the same as his worldly goods, and Christian sepulture.
Hence Thaness, a female thane; a thane’s wife.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., iii. All the rural thanes and thanesses attended on these occasions.
1849. J. Wilson, Christopher under Canvass, No. 5. The Thaness [Lady Macbeth] is self-stayed.
