Dictionary

hanse en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /hænzə/
• /hæns/

Etymology

See Hanse.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, historical) Alternative form of Hanse, a merchant guild or a former commercial league of German cities.
   alt of Hanse
   • In this, they resembled the alien merchant guilds and hanses of the medieval period. 2011, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Institutions and European Trade, page 95:
   • The town does not seem to have had a hanse, nor have there been discovered any records showing the existence of medieval trade guilds; […] 1911, John Rhys, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire, page 252:
   • Gilds and hanses seized control of the export trade […] 2002, P. Boissonnade, Life and Work in Medieval Europe, page 208:
   • For the sake of convenience the title is generally shortened to Hanse, but the initial capital is retained, not least to prevent confusion with other hanses. 2002, T. H. Lloyd, England and the German Hanse, 1157-1611: A Study of Their Trade, page 1:
2. (historical) The guildhall of a Hanse.
3. (historical) A fee payable to the Hanse, particularly its entrance fee and the impost levied on non-members trading in its area.

Forms

Synonyms

hanse-penny (any fee paid to the Hanse) · guild (merchant guild) · hansing-silver (fee paid to enter the Hanse) · hanse-gild (any fee paid to the Hanse) · Hanseatic League (Hanseatic League) · hansing (fee paid to enter the Hanse) · hanse-house (headquarters of a Hanse in a city) · guildhall (headquarters of a Hanse in a city)

hanse en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).

Meanings

1. That part of an elliptical or many-centred arch which has the shorter radius and immediately adjoins the impost.
   • Now Workmen call each End of these Arches the Hanse, which Hanses are always the Arches of smaller Circles than the Scheme, which is the middle Part of these Arches, and consists of a Part of a larger Circle […] 1736, Richard Neve, Neve's The city and country purchaser and builder's dictionary:
   • The building, from the tenor of the whole description, was in the style of the Renaissance, and the pillars (spiral or wreathed) probably supported the hanses, or spring of the arch. 1846, Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Quarto Publications, volume 1, page 60:

Forms