Germany

The story

1. LatinGermānus
2. LatinGermānī
3. LatinGermānia
4. Old EnglishĠermanie
5. Old FrenchGermanie
6. Middle EnglishGermanie
7. English todayGermany

From Middle English Germanie, from Old English Germanie & Germania, from Latin Germānia (“land of the Germans”), from Germānī, a people living around and east of the Rhine first attested in the 1st century B.C.E. works of Julius Caesar and of uncertain etymology. The exonym was said by Strabo to derive from germānus (“close kin; genuine”), making it cognate with germane and german, but this seems unsupported. Attempts to derive it from Germanic or Celtic roots since the 18th century are all problematic, although it is perhaps cognate with the Old Irish gair (“neighbour”). Doublet of Germania. In reference to a medieval kingdom, English Germany is usually an anachronism using the Roman name to describe the area or calquing various Latin terms like rex Teutonicorum ("king of the Teutons"), which were often derogatory exonyms rather than formal titles.

Words from the same roots