One who held lands in Ireland under the Celtic law of tanistry. The chief of a sept. (Irish, tanaiste, heir apparent to a chief.)
“Whoever stood highest in the estimation of the class was nominated ‘Tanist,ʹ or successor.”—E. Lawless: Story of Ireland, chap. iii. p. 27.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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