See also: maegth and mægþ

English

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Noun

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mægth (plural mægths)

  1. Alternative form of maegth
    • 1874, William Stubbs, “The Anglo-Saxon System”, in The Constitutional History of England in Its Origin and Development, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 111:
      Whether, before the name of shire was introduced into Mercia, the several mægths or regions bore any common designation, such as that of gau, must remain in entire obscurity.
    • 1905, P[aul] Vinogradoff, The Growth of the Manor, London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Lim., page 140:
      It is clear from the place-names that the settlement of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles in Britain was largely effected on the principle of allotment of territory to mægths.
    • 1906, Thomas William Shore, Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race: A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People, page 170:
      The numerous earthworks called Maiden Castle, many of them of Celtic origin, were probably used as defensive earthworks by the early mægths.
    • 1906, The American Historical Review, page 363:
      Settlement was by mægths, and the unit of landed property was the terra familiae (hiwisc or hide), which, as involving a kind of house-community with regard to proprietorship and cultivation, was “probably not unlike” the Welsh gwely (p. 141).
    • 1982, Michael Swanton, Crisis and Development in Germanic Society, 700-800: Beowulf and the Burden of Kingship, Kümmerle Verlag, →ISBN, page 26:
      [] an alliance of such mægths and their leading satraps.