heretoga, heretoch, -togh
(ˈhɛrɪtəʊgə)
Forms: 1 heretoᵹa, 2 heretoche, 3 here-, hæretoȝe, Hist. 6–9 heretoch, 8–9 -togh, -toga.
[OE. hęretoᵹa = OFris. hęrtoga, -tiga, OS. hęritogo (MDu. hertoge, -toch, -tich, Du. hertog), OHG. hęrizogo (MHG. herzoge, G. herzog), ON. hertogi (Sw. hertig, Da. hertug); f. hęri, hęre here n. army + OE. -toᵹa, OLG. -togo, OHG. -zogo agent-noun, f. weak grade tug-, tog- of *teuhan, OE. *téohan, téon to lead: see tee v. (cognate with L. duc-ere, dux). The Hist. forms heretoch, -togh represent med.L. heretochius.]
O.E. Hist. The leader of an army; the commander of the militia of a shire or district. As it was rendered by L. dux. and was the same word as Ger. herzog, it was taken by 17th and 18th c. writers as = Duke.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. i. xii. [xv.] (1890) 52 Wæron ða ærest heora latteowas and heretoᵹan tweᵹen ᵹebroðra Hengest and Horsa. c 1000 ælfric Num. xiii. 1 Moises se mæra heretoᵹa. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 243 Se þe geð into fihte wið-ute heretoche. c 1205 Lay. 10268 Seuarus wes heora hæra-toȝe. 1577–87 [see heretochy]. 1641 in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) V. 48 Lieutenants of counties (anciently known by the name of Heretoch). 1643 Herle Answer to Ferne 24 The ancient Governours of the Militia of the Realme, both by sea and land cal'd Heretochs, which Lambard likens to the High Constables of France. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. I. App. i. 92 note, The heretoghs or dukes, and the sheriffs, were chosen by the freeholders in the folkmote. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 408 In the time of our Saxon ancestors..the military force of this kingdom was in the hands of the dukes or heretochs. 1848 Lytton Harold vi. vi, If thou wert as frank in the grim land of thy heretogh. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. iv. 66 In a.d. 449, under two heretogas, Hengist and Horsa, the strangers came. |