esne
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "To an esne, therefore, I refer the entry in Doomsday-book, that at Chester, if a male or female slave shall do any […]"
- "[…] 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; […]"
- "[…] insist that in the event of the death of an esne his full value had to be paid."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Old English esne, from Proto-West Germanic *asnī, from Proto-Germanic *asnijaz (“day labourer, hireling”), from Proto-Germanic *asniz, *asunz (“reward”), 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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *asnī, *asnijaz, *asniz, *os(e)n-