witenagemot Hist.
(ˈwɪtənəgɪˌməʊt, popularly wɪtəˈnægɪmɒt)
Also 3 witene imot; 6 wytena gemote, 7 weidenagamoot, 7–9 wittena-gemot(e, (9 witana-).
[OE. witena ᵹemót assembly of wise men: see witan, wite n.1, and gemote, moot n.1]
The assembly of the witan, the national council of Anglo-Saxon times; transf. of modern parliaments or other deliberative assemblies.
| [c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. v, On ᵹemote hiora witena.] c 1000 ælfric Gram. viii. (Z.) 30 Haec sinodus, þis witena ᵹemot. 1050 O.E. Chron. (MS. C), Þa hæfde Eadwerd cing witena ᵹemot on Lunden to midlencten. c 1205 Lay. 11545 Þet hustinge wes god, hit wes witene-imot. |
| 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 252 The word Witena..doth include the Nobilitie and Commons, because they be Counsellors of the Realme,..in respect whereof the assembling of them, was of some called Wytena Gemote. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 226 Their Wittenagemots or Mikel Synods. 1656 Harrington Oceana 35 marg., Weidenagamoots. 1660 Waterhouse Arms & Arm. 181 The Wittena⁓gemote and great Councel of our wisdom, in the preamble to the Statute of 43 Eliz. c. 12. acknowledgeth it to have been the policy of this Realm. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xxxiii. 405 The wittena-gemote, or commune concilium of the antient Germans. 1785 Cowper Let. to J. Hill 22 Jan., Shall I derive no other advantage from the great Wittena-Gemot of the nation, than merely to read their debates? 1833 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 348 Having occasion to write to Sir T. Acland while he is attending the Witena⁓gemot at Cambridge, I sent him a fact for the geologists. 1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence xxxiii, A kind of sober Witana-gemot [rime bag 'em hot]. 1899 Sir M. Foster Presid. Addr. Brit. Assoc. 22 The first select Witena⁓gemote of the science of the world. |