dright

• IPA^(key): /dɹaɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt

From Middle English drihte, from Old English driht, dryht (“a multitude, an army, company, body of retainers, nation, a people, men”), from Proto-West Germanic *druhti, from Proto-Germanic *druhtiz (“troop, following”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold, hold fast, support”).

Cognate with Old Frisian dregte (“people, crowd, escort, retinue, host”), Middle Low German drucht (“band, war-team”), Middle High German truht (“multitude, offspring”), Icelandic drótt (“people, entourage, bodyguard”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍄𐍃 (gadrauhts, “soldier”). Related also to German Truchsess (“steward”), from Middle High German truhtsæze (“chairman of a multitude, steward”, literally “sitting one/presider next to/in front of a multitude". The meaning "multitude" survives in present day German in the sense of "representing a court”), from Old High German truhtsāzzo.

dright (plural drights)

1. (historical) A multitude; army; host.
   • 1943, ELH., volumes 10-12, page 262:

     […] and Finn's compatriots were of course his subjects; more particularly, his close associates, the members of his dright.

   • 1969, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, page 45:

     Ancient battle poems show that neither gold nor lofty cause could keep a dright's courage at the sticking point: The warriors needed to be harangued into perseverance, reminded of their obligations to the ring-giver and their ultimate rewards.

   • 2003, 1962, Albert C. Baugh, Kemp Malone, A Literary History of England:

     The king shared his goods with the dright and took them into his very household; the dright shielded him with their bodies on the field of battle, and if he fell they fought on, to victory or death, […]

• drightfare
• drightfolk
• drightman

dright (plural drights)

1. Alternative form of drighten
   • 2001, Diana Wynne Jones, The chronicles of Chrestomanci:

     "Hey, you!" Christopher called out in the most lordly way he could. "You there! Take me to the Dright at once!"