The term thegn (or thane or thayn in Shakespearean English), from OE tegn, eegn "servant, attendant, retainer," "one who serves" is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves. It is also the term for an early medieval Scandinavian class of retainers.