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The exact sense of the word being lost, it was presumed to denote some ancient dignity, the holder of which was called abthanus or abthane.
William Forbes Skene holds that the correct meaning of abthain (or abthane) is not "abbot" or "over-thane", but "abbey" or "monastery".
Abthain (or abthane) is an English or Lowland Scots form of the middle-Latin word abthania (Gaelic abdhaine), meaning abbacy.