Teuton
(ˈtjuːtɒn, -t(ə)n)
[ad. L. Teuton-ēs, Teuton-i (rarely sing. Teuton, -us), ethnic name. For sense 2 see Note to Teutonic.]
1. In pl. (usually in L. form Teutones) applied to an ancient people of unknown race, said to have inhabited the Cimbric Chersonesus in Jutland c 320 b.c., who, in company with the Cimbri, in 113–101 b.c. devastated Gaul and threatened the Roman republic.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Teutonic, belonging to the Teutons, an ancient people of Germany, inhabiting chiefly along the coasts of the German ocean. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 420/2 The consul Manilius and the proconsul Cæpio were defeated by the Teutones and Cimbri in Gaul. 1879 Froude Cæsar v. 41 Both Teutons and Cimbri were Germans. |
2. A German; in extended ethnic sense, any member of the races or peoples speaking a Germanic or Teutonic language; in Great Britain and its colonies, and the United States, often used like ‘Saxon’ in opposition to ‘Celt’, and in avoidance of ‘German’ in its modern political sense.
| 1833 D. Macmillan in Hughes Mem. ii. (1883) 20, I am very glad that my mother is a Teuton. 1841 Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 221 These isolated Teutons constituted under the Venetian government a sort of smuggling free state. 1900 A. Lang in Blackw. Mag. Apr. 543/2 He is a partisan of the pure Teuton. |
Hence
ˈTeutondom, the land or domain of the Teutons, Germany; the German people or state;
Teutoˈnesque a. [
-esque], of Teutonic character.
| 1880 Stallybrass tr. Grimm's Teutonic Mythol. I. 103 Those divinities of whom there is least trace to be found in the rest of *Teutondom. 1889 R. B. Anderson tr. Rydberg's Teutonic Mythol. 22 Did they look upon themselves as aborigines or as immigrants in Teutondom? |
| 1839 Darley Beaumont & Fletcher's Wks. I. Introd. 38 A *Teutonesque consonantal language like ours, will, however polished, want sufficient melodiousness. |