maegth means in Anglo-Saxon England, an extended family, a kind of kindred group; clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “maegth” is a great word
MAEGTH — [Noun] The fundamental Anglo-Saxon social unit: an extended kindred or clan bound by blood, mutual obligation, and collective identity. Learned borrowing from Old English mǣġþ ("family group, clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people"), from Proto-Germanic *maigiþō ("shamelessness, wantonness, wickedness"). First attested in the Old English period (pre-1150). Unlike "family," which centers on the domestic hearth, or "tribe," which expands into a political confederation, the maegth was the inescapable web of blood-right and blood-feud—the first loyalty and the final court of appeal. It was the shared claim to a strip of ploughland, the circle of spears around a hall, and the grim arithmetic of wergild paid for a slain cousin. This primal tether, drawn not in land but in blood, spun identity, law, and belonging from a single, immutable fact.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Old English mǣġþ (“family group, clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people”).
noun
- In Anglo-Saxon England, an extended family, a kind of kindred group; clan, tribe, generation, stock, race, people“Every person had two maegthe, […]”