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Definition 2024


esne

esne

English

Noun

esne (plural esnes)

  1. (Anglo-Saxon, historical) A hireling of servile status; slave.
    • 1818, Samuel Heywood, A dissertation upon the distinctions in society:
      To an esne, therefore, I refer the entry in Doomsday-book, that at Chester, if a male or female slave shall do any [...]
    • 1875, William Stubbs, The constitutional history of England, in its origin and development:
      [...] of British extraction captured or purchased, — or of the common German stock descended from the slaves of the first colonists: the esne or slave who works for hire; [...]
    • 2011, David Anthony Edgell Pelteret, Slavery in Early Mediaeval England:
      [...] insist that in the event of the death of an esne his full value had to be paid.

Basque

Noun

esne

  1. milk