Abthain (original) (raw)

Abthain (or abthane) is an English or Lowland Scots form of the middle-Latin word abthania (Gaelic abdhaine), meaning abbacy. The exact sense of the word being lost, it was presumed to denote some ancient dignity, the holder of which was called abthanus or abthane. Many of these abthains passed into the hands of laymen, and were transmitted from father to son. They paid certain ecclesiastical tributes, and seem to have closely resembled the termonn lands of the early Irish Church.