Etymology

hanse

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Today it means: A merchant guild, particularly the Fellowship of London Merchants (the "Old Hanse") given a monopoly on London's foreign trade by the Normans or its successor, the Company of Merchant Adventurers (the "New Hanse"), incorporated in 1497 and chartered under Henry VII and Elizabeth I. Full definition →

Middle English hanse ← Old French hanse ← Medieval Latin hansa
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hanse · noun1

See Hanse.

hanse · noun2

Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).

Hanse · noun3

  1. German · derived fromHanse
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḱóm“beside, by, with, along”
  3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḱómsōd“union; gathering”
  4. Proto-Germanic · derived from*hansō“gathering; coalition; gang of men”
  5. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*hansu
  6. Old High German · derived fromhansa
  7. Medieval Latin · derived fromhansa
  8. Old French · derived fromhanse“guild; guild fee”
  9. Middle English · inherited fromhanse
  10. English todayHanse

From Middle English hanse, from Old French hanse (“guild; guild fee”), from Medieval Latin hansa, from Old High German hansa, from Proto-West Germanic *hansu, from Proto-Germanic *hansō (“gathering; coalition; gang of men”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱómsōd (“union; gathering”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, with, along”) + *sed- (“to sit”). In reference to the Hanseatic League, via German Hanse. Cognate with Old English hōs (“company, retinue, escorts”),

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchhanse all →

Hansard

Old High Germanhansa all →

Hanseatic

Proto-West Germanic*hansu all →

Hanseatic

Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.