Teuton
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈt(j)uː.tən/
ipa: /ˈt(j)uː.tɒn/
ipa: /ˈt(j)u.tən/
ipa: /ˈt(j)u.tɑn/
rhymes: -uːtən
rhymes: -uːtɒn
Forms: form: Teutons
Etymology: PIE word
 *tewtéh₂
Attested since 1720, from Latin Teutonēs, Teutonī (“the Teutons”) (cf. Ancient Greek Τεύτονες (Teútones)), a Germanic or Celtic tribe that inhabited a coastal area in today's Germany and devastated Gaul between 113 and 101 BCE. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people”), from which come:
* Proto-Germanic *þeudō (“people”)
** Old English þēod (“nation, people, country, language”), Middle English thede
** Proto-Germanic *þeudanaz (“ruler, leader of the people”)
*** Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽𐍃 (þiudans, “king”)
*** Old Norse þjóðann (“prince, king”)
*** Old Saxon þiudan (“lord of the people, ruler”)
*** Old English þēoden (“king, lord”)
** Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz (“of the people or tribe”)
*** English Dutch
*** German deutsch
* Proto-Celtic *toutā
** Old Irish túath
* Persian توده (tôda, tude, “heap, masses, people, folk”)
* Proto-Slavic *ťuďь (“foreign, strange”)
** Russian чужо́й (čužój, “stranger”), чудно (čudno, “strange”), чу́до (čúdo, “miracle”)
Senses: examples: text: The difference between the Clergy and the Teuton conquerors was more than a difference of creed, or of civilization. It was an actual difference of race. They were Romans, to whom the Teuton was a savage, speaking a different tongue, obeying different laws, his whole theory of the universe different from the Roman.
ref: 1864, Charles Kingsley, The Roman and the Teuton: A Series of Lectures Delivered Before the University of Cambridge, page 220:
text: We have noted that the Teutonic layer of European barbarians, unlike the Celtic layer, resisted the disintegrating action of Hellenism to such effect that the Teutons were able to take their place in the external proletariat of the Hellenic World and to dispatch the Hellenic Society in its death agonies with the coup de grâce.
ref: 1946, Arnold Joseph Toynbee, A Study of History, volume 1, page 153:
text: Some fifteen hundred years ago, the Teuton tribes of Northern Europe held an annual ceremony.[…]We can't presume to understand all that this specific ritual meant to the Teutons nor precisely what their expectations might have been.
ref: 2007, Judika Illes, Pure Magic: A Complete Course in Spellcasting, page 8:
text: What he imagined the social order and the experience of the Teutons actually to have been, and why this lost world should represent an ideal, is, it must be said, hard to discover. His pronouncements on the Teutons of the Dark Ages are decidedly sparse.
ref: 2012, Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: A Life, page 271:
glosses: A member of an early Germanic tribe living in Jutland noted in historical writings by Greek and Roman authors.
examples: text: The third threat, from the Teutonic Knights of Germany, was the worst, because the Crusader Teutons wanted not only Russian land but also to kill off the people of Russia because they were a different kind of Christian from them!
ref: 2008, K. M. Lucchese, Folk Like Me: The Read-Aloud Book of Saints, page 51:
text: Its garrison consisted of the Templars and Hospitalliers, the knights of Cyprus, Teutons, French, English, Pizzan, Venetian, and Genoan mercenaries.[…]On the following day the New Tower of the city, which was defended by the Teuton knights, was taken by assault.
ref: 2009, Kadir I. Natho, Circassian History, page 177:
glosses: A member of the Teutonic Order.
examples: text: In the first place, a prolonged struggle in the North Temperate Zone, with a harsh, though not a depressing, natural environment, endows the Teuton with unusual energy and initiative. Then centuries of wanderings in which the strong set forth and the weak and timid stay behind, brings the Teuton to the west of Europe, to the British Isles, and to America, with a courage, enterprise, and self-assertion rare in the history of man. The Teuton becomes the Anglo-Saxon, and therewith less apt for the gregarious life.
ref: 1901, Edward Alsworth Ross, Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order, published 2009, page 16:
text: Every Teuton must fall on his face before an inferior Teuton; until they all find, in the foul marshes towards the Baltic, the very lowest of all possible Teutons, and worship him--and find he is a Slav. So much for Pan-Germanism.
ref: 1915, G. K. Chesterton, The Crimes of England, published 2008, unnumbered page:
text: The history of the Teutons, or Germans, as they are more commonly called, is very much like that of the Bantu in central Africa.
ref: 1976, Harry R. Boer, A Short History of the Early Church, page 122:
glosses: A member of any Germanic-language-speaking people, especially a German.
Related terms: Teutonic