retinue

UK/ˈɹɛ.tɪ.njuː/US/ˈɹɛ.tɪ.n(j)uː/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: retinues

A retinue is the attendants who travel with an important person. A large retinue.

The size of it was the whole point, since it showed what somebody could afford to feed. A retinue arriving at a house could eat a year's stores in a fortnight.

Definitions of retinue

1nounretinueThe attendants who travel with an important person.C1
“The retinue was forty people and about sixty horses.”

retinue is a group.

Also accepted in games: entourage

Where it comes from

Old French retenue comes from retenir, to retain, since these were the people retained.

Old French
retenue
Middle English
retenue
English, today
retinue

Built from

retenir · Old French — retain

From Middle English retenue, from Old French retenue, past participle of retenir (“retain”). a doublet of ritenuto.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

retinue in the wild

A retinue is a body of persons "retained" in the service of a noble, royal personage, or dignitary; a suite (French "what follows") of retainers.
Retinue
In Greek mythology and religion, the thiasus was the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers.
Thiasus
The hird, in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls.
Hird
And he died in Sweden and was thereafter the first(?) in(?) Friggir's(?) retinue(?) and then: all vikings.
Freygeirr

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the retenir family

retain retainer

retinue — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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