witenagemot
Sep. 20th, 2016 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordwitenagemot (WIT-n-uh-guh-moht) - n., the assembly of the witan, or national council of the king, nobles, bishops, and aldermen.
A wita being a king's councilor, literally, wise one (or one with wit), and -mot being moot, as ain a moot court. This was a political institution from the 7th to 11th centuries of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. You'd expect an initial /v/ sound, but no, the pronunciation has been fully modernized. Historically the most common spelling was wittenagemot, with alternate forms wittenagemote, wittena-gemote and wittena-gemot, but the orthographers settled on witenagemot around 1850. The term is not used by historians much anymore, alas.
---L.
A wita being a king's councilor, literally, wise one (or one with wit), and -mot being moot, as ain a moot court. This was a political institution from the 7th to 11th centuries of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. You'd expect an initial /v/ sound, but no, the pronunciation has been fully modernized. Historically the most common spelling was wittenagemot, with alternate forms wittenagemote, wittena-gemote and wittena-gemot, but the orthographers settled on witenagemot around 1850. The term is not used by historians much anymore, alas.
---L.
