retinue means A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important. It carries an Arena rating of 1734, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, retinue ranks #85 of 13,953 for Most Elegant Words, #257 of 13,919 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #444 of 13,900 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,056 of 13,940 for Most Vivid Words.
retinue is pronounced /ˈɹɛ.tɪ.njuː/.
Why “retinue” is a great word
A group of attendants, servants, or followers who accompany an important person. From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue ('retinue, group retained'), the feminine past participle of retenir ('to retain'), ultimately from Latin retinēre ('to hold back, retain'). Unlike an entourage, which suggests a fashionable coterie of modern celebrity, or an escort, which denotes temporary protective companionship, a retinue is a permanent fixture of status, a formal and often servile train. It is the rustle of silk and the clank of armor in a lord's hall, the collective shadow cast by a bishop processing down a nave, the silent scribes and cupbearers standing just outside the frame of a royal portrait—the living architecture of power, designed to be both a shield and a mirror.
Etymology
From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue, past participle of retenir (“retain”). Doublet of ritenuto.
noun
- A group of attendants or servants, especially of someone considered important.“the queen’s retinues”
- A group of warriors or nobles accompanying a king or other leader; comitatus.“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.””
- A service relationship.
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