noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
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"The town does not seem to have had a hanse, nor have there been discovered any records showing the existence of medieval trade guilds; […]"
"Now Workmen call each End of these Arches the Hanse, which Hanses are always the Arches of smaller Circles than the Scheme, which is the middle Part of these Arches, and consists of a Part of a larger Circle […]"
"The town does not seem to have had a hanse, nor have there been discovered any records showing the existence of medieval trade guilds; […]"
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.
Common synonyms include: guildhall, hanseatic league.
The town does not seem to have had a hanse, nor have there been discovered any records showing the existence of medieval trade guilds; […]
Pronounced /hæns/.
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”),
See Hanse.
Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).