æt (OSw) æt (ODan) ett (OGu) ætt (ON) ett (OSw) ætt (OSw) átt (ON) noun

Etymologically related to the verb ægha ‘to own’, and referring to a group of people belonging together. The nature of this relationship has been debated, and kinship, whether originating in an ancestor or an individual in the present, seems central but not necessary. The laws do not define the term. Certain inheritance and paternity rules suggest a unilineal, primarily patrilineal, ætt (OIce Grg, KRA), æt (OSw SdmL, VmL); in OIce Js it refers to a royal dynasty. Also appearing in the context of compensation for killings, where it seems to refer both to paternal and maternal relatives of the killer or the victim (ONorw FrL, OSw DL, YVgL, ÄVgL, ÖgL, cf. OSw ættarbot and OSw ættarstuþi). Often appearing in the context of a person — related or not — becoming part of an æt, which thereby accepts legal responsibility for them (the only usage in ODan, but also appearing in OIce Grg, Js; ONorw FrL, GuL; OSw ÄVgL, YVgL, cf. ON ættleiðing), and of dependents being cared for by members of the æt (OIce Grg, Jó, Js; ONorw GuL, cf. OSw omaghi). OGu GL states that land must not be sold outside the OGu ett, a notion that appears elsewhere in expressions with OSw byrþ (q.v.), ODan byrd, and which in older research was interpreted as a remnant of an old, collective form of ownership and organization of society.

ancestry OSw KrL Jb
OSw MEL Jb
family OGu GL A 28
OIce Grg Vís 94 Ómb 128, 138 Rsþ 229
OIce Js Mah 7 Ert 16
OIce KRA 2
ONorw FrL Intr 1
OSw SdmL Äb
OSw UL Äb
OSw VmL Äb
kin ODan SkL 126, 127
ONorw FrL KrbB 1
ONorw GuL Løb, Arb, Mhb, Tjb, Olb
OSw ÄVgL Md
OSw KrL Äb
OSw MESt Äb
OSw ÖgL Db Äb Jb
OSw YVgL Drb, Add
kindred OIce Grg Vís 102
OIce Jó Kge 24
lineage OIce Js Kdb 4
relatives OSw DL Mb
Expressions:

ater i æt, attær i ætt (OSw)

by descendent inheritance OSw VmL Äb

fram i æt (OSw)

Used of inheritance from a later generation by an earlier.

by reversion OSw VmL Äb

leiða í ætt (ON)

adopt OIce Jó Kge 9 Js Ert 16

Refs:

Bjorvand and Lindeman 2000 s.v. ætt; Hellquist s.v. ätt; KLNM s.v. ætt; Lindkvist 2010; Winberg 1985, 10−30