hanse

See also Hanse

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English hanse, from Old French hanse (“hanse, fee, company of merchants”) and/or Medieval Latin hansa (“hanse, the Hanse League”); both from Middle High German hans, hanse (“association or corporation of merchants, the Hanse League”), from Old High German hansa (“troop of soldiers, host, company, multitude, crowd, mass”), from Proto-Germanic *hansō (“gathering, coalition, troop, company”), Proto-Indo-European *ḱómsōd (“union, gathering”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, with, along”). Cognate with Gothic  (hansa, “band of men”), Old English hōs (“company, escort, attendants, retinue”), Latin consilium ("council, advisory body"; < *consodium), Russian сосед (soséd, “neighbour”), Latin cum (“with”).

Noun

hanse (plural hanses)

1. A league; a confederacy.
2. A society or combination of merchants in mercantile towns, for the protection and facility of trade and transportation.
3. A Mediaeval French guild.
4. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (usually capitalised) The German Hanseatic league; Hanse.

Quotations

• (Can we date this quote?), Institutions and European Trade (ISBN 1139500392), page 95:

  In this, they resembled the alien merchant guilds and hanses of the medieval period.

• (Can we date this quote?), An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire (published by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales), page 252:

  The town does not seem to have had a hanse, nor have there been discovered any records showing the existence of medieval trade guilds; […]

• 2002, P. Boissonnade, Life and Work in Medieval Europe, page 208:

  Gilds and hanses seized control of the export trade […]

• 2002, T. H. Lloyd, England and the German Hanse, 1157-1611: A Study of Their Trade, page 1:

  For the sake of convenience the title is generally shortened to Hanse, but the initial capital is retained, not least to prevent confusion with other hanses.

• 2011, Will Durant, The Age of Faith: The Story of Civilization (ISBN 1451647611):

  Cologne, which had formed a hanse of its own, was forced into subordination.

Adjective

hanse (comparative more hanse, superlative most hanse)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Pertaining to the Hanse or German Hanseatic league.

   Hanse towns

Etymology 2

Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).

Noun

hanse (plural hanses)

1. (architecture) That part of an elliptical or many-centred arch which has the shorter radius and immediately adjoins the impost.