Basic Guidelines For English Spellings
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1A body of people attending a lord or other powerful person. More generally: a body of retainers, attendants, dependants, or followers; a retinue.
2A crowd of people; (depreciative) a rabble.
Middle English (in an earlier sense). From Anglo-Norman maigné, mayné, meigné, meinée, mesnee, meyné and Old French mesnie, variants of Anglo-Norman maignede and Old French (Normandy) maisnede from an unrecorded post-classical Latin derivative of classical Latin mansiōn-, mansiō.