hanse
/hæns/
hanse noun: the guildhall of a Hanse. Also the alternative form of Hanse.
Noun (1)
hanse (plural hanses)
Noun (2)
hanse (plural hanses)
- 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
Noun (3) capitalized: Hanse
Hanse (plural Hanses)
- A merchant guild, particularly the Fellowship of London Merchants (the "Old Hanse") given a monopoly on London's foreign trade by the Normans or its successor, the Company of Merchant Adventurers (the "New Hanse"), incorporated in 1497 and chartered under Henry VII and Elizabeth I.
- Synonyms:
- guild
- The rights and privileges of such guilds, particularly their trade monopolies.
- A commercial association of Scottish free burghs in the Middle Ages.
- The Hanseatic League: a commercial association of German towns in the Middle Ages.
- Synonyms:
- Hanseatic League
- Alternative form of hanse, the fees payable to a Hanse or its guildhall.
- Synonyms:
- hanse and guildhall
Also used as
hanse is also the alternative form of Hanse.
Synonyms of hanse
- guild
- guildhall
- hanse-house
- hansing
- hansing-silver
- hanse-penny
- hanse-gild
- Hanseatic League
- hanse and guildhall
Forms of hanse
| plural | hanses |
|---|---|
| alternative form | hans |
| alternative form | haunse |
| alternative form | haunce |
| plural | Hanses |
| alternative form | hanse |
| alternative form | Haunce |
| alternative form | Hans |
Origin of hanse
See Hanse.
Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).
From Middle English hanse, from Old French hanse (“guild; guild fee”), from Medieval Latin hansa, from Old High German hansa, from Proto-West Germanic *hansu, from Proto-Germanic *hansō (“gathering; coalition; gang of men”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱómsōd (“union; gathering”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, with, along”) + *sed- (“to sit”). In reference to the Hanseatic League, via German Hanse. Cognate with Old English hōs (“company, retinue, escorts”),
Words formed from hanse
- Hansard
- Hanse association
- Hanseatic
- Hanseatic League
- Hanse city
- hanse-gild
- hanse-house
- Hanse league
- Hanse merchant
- hanse-penny
- Hanse town
- hansing
- hansing-silver
Words that rhyme with hanse
3 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about hanse
- What does hanse mean?
- Hanse means the guildhall of a Hanse.
- What part of speech is hanse?
- Hanse is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hanse?
- Hanse is pronounced /hæns/.
- What is the plural of hanse?
- The plural of hanse is hanses.
Words near hanse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hanse (page history and authors); Hanse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Hanse.wav.
Cite this entry: “hanse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hanse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.