From: utzoo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!benson Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: Re: Posslq finds favor Article-I.D.: dcdwest.175 Posted: Fri Feb 18 10:00:06 1983 Received: Sun Feb 20 02:11:45 1983 References: sentry1.1418 The Norse, who are some of our etymological benefactors, gave us another synonym for posslq, leman. Of course, we might as lief say leperson, but that would mix our sources. According to Poul Anderson in "The Last Viking", a story of Harald Hardrade, the mistress of the king would be called his leman and, often would have status equal to the wife. The etymology of the word suggests that it meant something like lover but it seems to have had a more substantive social position. Peter Benson ittdcd !decvax!ittvax!dcdwest