Meanings
nounwitan (plural witans)
plural witans
- The Anglo-Saxon national council or witenagemot.
The folkland, the national fund, was administered and conveyed conjointly by the king and the witan.
1889, Hannis Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution1 more example
But in estimating the powers of the witan, we must not lose sight of the fact, that the king sometimes assumes a tone of superiority scarcely consistent with its independence.
1833, S. A. Dunham, Europe in the Middle Ages, Green & Longman, page 48
Origin
- Old Englishwitan
- Englishwitan
Learned borrowing from Old English witan, plural of wita (“wise man”).
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
witan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witan
MLA
“witan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witan. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “witan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witan.
Source: witan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.