Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

æ
þ

heáh-geréfa

  • noun [ masculine ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
heáh-geréfa, an; m.
A high reeve, reeve of high rank. Kemble, Saxons in England,
  • ii. 156
, observes of this word, 'It is a name of very indefinite signification, though not of very rare occurrence. It is obvious that it really denotes only a reeve of high rank, I believe always a royal officer; but it is impossible to say whether the rank is personal or official; whether there existed an office called heáhgeréfscipe having certain duties; or whether the circumstance of the shire or other reeve being a nobleman in the king's confidence gave to him this exceptional title. I am inclined to believe that they are exceptional, and perhaps in some degree similar to the Missi of the Franks, officers dispatched under occasional commissions to perform functions of supervision, hold courts of appeal, and discharge other duties, as the necessity of the case demanded; but that they are not established officers found in all the districts of the kingdom, and forming a settled part of the machinery of government.' See also Stubbs' Const. Hist. i. 125, 343. Héhgeréfa proconsul,
  • Ælfc. Gl. 106
    • ;
  • Som. 78, 58
    • ;
  • Wrt. Voc. 57, 38
. Befora undercyningum ł héhgeroefum ante præsides,
  • Mk. Skt. Lind. 13, 9
    • .
Héghgeroefa comes,
  • Rtl. 193, 9
    • .
Cyninges heáhgeréfan gild iiii þúsend þrymsa the 'wergild' of a king's high reeve four thousand 'thrymsas,'
  • L. Wg. 4
    • ;
  • Th. i. 186, 8
    • :
  • Chr. 778
    • ;
  • Erl. 55, 26: 779
    • ;
  • Erl. 55, 36: 1001
    • ;
  • Erl. 136, 6, 8, 23, 24: 1002
    • ;
  • Erl. 137, 29
    • .
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “heáh-geréfa.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/18337.

Checked: 1
Full form

Word-wheel

  • heáh-geréfa, n.

Copyright

All the data provided here are free for any purpose. If you use the data for academic purposes, we ask that you kindly cite us as your source. In case you need a large portion of the dictionary data or you need it in a specific format, let us know through the contact form, we are happy to do custom database dumps for researchers.

How to cite

You can cite the entries of the online version of the dictionary, or you can cite the scanned pages of the original paper editions.

  • To cite the online version of the dictionary, click the icon right under the entry.
  • To cite the scanned paper version of the dictionary, click the "show/hide this scanned page" link under the entry, check the scan and use the citation information right above it.