witan

[ wit-n, -ahn ]

noun

, Early English History.

1. the members of the national council or witenagemot.
2. (used with a singular verb) the witenagemot.

witan

/ ˈwɪtən /

noun

1. an assembly of higher ecclesiastics and important laymen, including king's thegns, that met to counsel the king on matters such as judicial problems
2. the members of this assembly

Word History and Origins

Origin of witan¹

1800–10; Modern English < Old English, plural of wita one who knows, councilor; akin to wit ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of witan¹

Old English witan, plural of wita wise man; see wit ², witness

Example Sentences

Herul — listed on the Assembly’s website as a “witan,” akin to a high-ranking adviser — gave it to the group two months later.

From Washington Post

Whatever the outcome of the Brexit chess game, it will go down in the history books of the Westminster parliament, which traces its history through the English Civil War and Norman Conquest to the ancient Witan of Anglo-Saxon England.

From Reuters

Weid, a word meaning to see, with later connotations of wisdom and wit, entered Germanic as witan, and Old English wis to “wisdom.”

From Literature

The meeting, of the “Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm”, derives from the Witan, the Anglo-Saxon feudal assembly of more than a thousand years ago.

From The Guardian

“The first target is the artistic and architectural quality, and advertisements would have been in conflict,” said Oliver Witan of Netzwerkarchitekten, an architectural firm in Darmstadt that, along with the artist Heike Klussmann, won a European Union-wide competition in 2001 to oversee the design and construction of the Wehrhahn.

From New York Times