esne

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English esne, from Proto-Germanic *asniz, *asunz (“reward; day labourer”), from Proto-Indo-European *os(e)n-, *es(e)n- (“summer, harvest, harvest-time”). Related to Old English earnian (“to labor for, strive after, deserve as the reward of labor, merit, earn, win”). More at earn.

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.

Anagrams

• Nees, eens, seen, sene, snee

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Basque

Etymology

From Proto-Basque *ezene.

Noun

esne ?

1. milk