meinie

• mayne, mayné, meiny, meynee, meynie

From Middle English meine, meyne, from Anglo-Norman maigne and Old French mesnie (“household”), from Vulgar Latin *mānsiōnāta, from Latin mānsiō, mānsiōnem (“house”). Compare menial.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪni/

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meinie (plural meinies)

1. (now rare, Scotland, Ireland) A household, or family.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum lxiv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X, by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur , London: David Nutt, , 1889, →OCLC, page 525:

     And whanne they in the caſtel wyſte hou ſire Palomydes had ſped there was a Ioyeful meyny / and ſoo ſir Palomydes departed / and came to the caſtell of Lonaȝep
     "And when they in the castle wist how Sir Palomides had sped, there was a joyful meiny; and so Sir Palomides departed, and came to the castle of Lonazep."

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (archaic or historical) A retinue.
   • 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume I, page 23:

     His speech thus spake the Moor, and took his leave,
     he and his meiny where the bátels lay:
     formal farewells to chief and crews he gave,
     exchanging congees with due courtesy.

   • 1965, Jack Robert Lander, The Wars of the Roses:

     And in the evening they went with their simple captain to his lodging; but a certain of his simple and rude meinie abode there all the night [...].

3. (now Scotland) A crowd of people; a rabble.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     For the mutable ranke-ſented Meynie, / Let them regard me, as I doe not flatter, / And therein behold themſelues.