retinue
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English
Etymology
From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue, past participle of retenir (“retain”). Doublet of ritenuto.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹɛt.ɪ.njuː/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈɹɛtɪn(j)uː/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈtɪnjuː/
,Audio (US) (file) Audio (US) (file)
Noun
retinue (plural retinues)
- A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important.
- 1915 April, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “Spring in Town”, in Fifty-one Tales, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, →OCLC:
- And not any longer as a king did Winter appear in those streets, as when the city was decked with gleaming white to greet him as a conqueror and he rode in with his glittering icicles and haughty retinue of prancing winds, but he sat there with a little wind at the corner of the street like some old blind beggar with his hungry dog.
- 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
- Preceded by a Simpsons short shot in 3-D—perhaps the only thing more superfluous than a fourth Ice Age movie—Ice Age: Continental Drift finds a retinue of vaguely contemporaneous animals coping with life in the post-Pangaea age.
- A group of warriors or nobles accompanying a king or other leader; comitatus.
- 1992, J. A. V. Haney and Eric Dahl, “On Igor’s Campaign” (translation of Слово о плъку Игоревѣ):
- Then Igor looked up at the bright sun and saw all his warriors / darkened from it by a shadow. / And Igor said to his retinue: / “Brothers and companions! It is better to be slain than taken captive. / Mount, brothers, your swift horses that we may glimpse the Blue Don.”
- 1992, J. A. V. Haney and Eric Dahl, “On Igor’s Campaign” (translation of Слово о плъку Игоревѣ):
- (obsolete) A service relationship.
Translations
group of servants
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comitatus
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service relationship
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See also
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
retinue
- Alternative form of retenue