Brewer's: Tanist

(A). 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,' or successor.”

E.Lawless: Story of Ireland, chap. iii. p. 27.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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