(Tithinga, from the Saxon, Thedhinga, i.e. Decuria), 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. An- ciently 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 ap- pointed to preside over the rest, being called the tithing- man, the head-borough, and in some countries the horse- holder, or borough's calder, being supposed the discreetest man in the borough, town, or tithing. The distribution of England into tithings and hundreds is ascribed to King Alfred.