retinue

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English retenue,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman retenue and retenue,^[5][2] the noun use of the feminine past participle of retenir (“to retain, hold back; to employ”),^[5][6][7][8] the source of retain.^[8][7] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from about 1240, meaning retention or confinement and also the engagement of servants and a company of people in service.^[9] The French verb goes back through Vulgar Latin *reteneō to Latin retineō (“to hold back”),^[8] formed from re- (“back”) and teneō (“to hold”),^[8] the source of contain and obtain and, through French, of rein.^[8] It is thus etymologically "that which is retained",^[8][6] and Klein compares the formation of continue and detinue.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being in someone's service: about 1385, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; the sense "group of attendants or followers" follows in Usk's Testament of Love.^[10][11] The OED's first quotation for a group of people accompanying a person is from Trevisa's translation of the Polychronicon, before 1387.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The idea behind the word is a body of men retained in a lord's service.^[8] Late Middle English used it both for the condition of being retained, as in Gower's phrases to make one's retinue with someone, to enter his service, and of a person's retinue, in his service,^[5] and for the people retained; the first sense is now only historical,^[5][12] and the second, a train of attendants around a sovereign, noble or person in authority, became the usual one.^[5][2][13] From Lydgate on it was also used figuratively of things that accompany something.^[5] Short-lived senses included retention (1489–1597) and restraint (1651), the latter like the later retenue.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a number attending upon a principal person, "a train; a meiny", and quoted King Lear.^[14] In West Yorkshire dialect a retinue was a long and tedious tale.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – the state of being in someone's service, in Chaucer.^[10]
• before 1387 – a group of people accompanying a person of rank.^[5]
• c. 1439 – figurative, things that accompany something.^[5]
• before 1450 – verb, to assemble people as a retinue (obsolete).^[5]
• 1489 – retention, keeping (obsolete by 1597).^[5]
• 1576 – without article, the members of a retinue collectively.^[5]
• 1827 – verb, to provide with or accompany as a retinue.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group of attendants, retainers or advisers accompanying an important person: The governor arrived with a retinue of aides and bodyguards.^[13][2][5]
2. A set of things that accompany or follow something.^[5]
3. (historical) The state of being in another person's service.^[5][12]

Verb

1. To provide with a retinue, or to accompany as one.^[5]

Word family

• retinued

Related words

• retain
• retainer
• retention
• retenue
• rein
• detinue
• continue

Usage notes

The stress was long on the second syllable: Walker (1791) noted that it had formerly always been there but that usage varied in his day.^[5] Pronunciations with second-syllable stress are still recorded.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)