Hist. [OE. lǽt (found only once) = OHG. lâʓ (? descendant of a freedman; glossed libertinus):—OTeut. *lǣto-z, app. related to OE. lǽtan LET v.1] The Old English designation for a person of status intermediate between that of a freeman and a slave.
a. 1000. Laws Æthelb. (Liebermann), § 26. Gif læt of slæhð, þone selestan xxx scll. forʓelde; ʓif þane oþerne or slæhð, lx. scillingum forʓelde; ðam þriddan xl scillingum forʓelden.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. iv. 64. The three ranks of men, the noble, the freeman, and the læt.
