(Tithinga, from the Sax. Theothunge, i.e. Decuriam), a number or company of ten men, with their families, knit together in a kind of society, and all bound to the king, for the peaceable behaviour of each other. Anciently no man was suffered to abide in England above forty days, unless he were enrolled in some tithing.—One of the principal inhabitants of the tithing was annually appointed to preside over the rest, being called the tithing-man, the head-borough, and in some countries the borstholder, or borough's ealdor, being supposed the discreetest man in the borough, town, or tithing. The distribution of England into tithings and hundreds is owing to King Alfred. See BORSTHOLDER.