An Attempt to Date
German
G.D.O'Bradovich III
July, 17, 2015
[INCOMPLETE]
The following information is from the Oxford English Dictionary. Citations after the year 1800 are omitted.
Etymology:
< classical Latin Germānus, used (as adjective and noun) as the designation of persons belonging to a group of related peoples inhabiting central and northern Europe, and speaking the dialects from which the ‘Germanic’ languages have developed, of uncertain and disputed origin (see note).
Compare Anglo-Norman germain (adjective) (c1235), germaneis , germeins , germaniens (noun) German, inhabitant of German regions, the German language (all second half of the 13th cent.). Compare Almain adj. and Dutch adj.
The name of the people.
The classical Latin name Germānī (plural) for groups of people living around and east of the Rhine is first attested in the mid first cent. b.c. in the writings of Julius Caesar; the name is still referred to as recent by Tacitus in the following century. The name was apparently not used in any form by the Germanic peoples themselves (compare quot. 2010 at sense A. 1a) and may have been originally given either by one of the neighbouring Celtic-speaking peoples or by the Romans themselves.
Strabo suggests a derivation < classical Latin germānus real, genuine (see germane adj.), but this cannot be substantiated from the usages of either word in other early sources. A number of attempts have been made since the 18th cent. to derive the name from Germanic or Celtic bases, but these are all problematic; compare the discussion by G. Neumann in J. Hoops's Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (ed. 2, 1998) XI. 259–65.
Old English Germanie Germans
( < classical Latin Germānia + Old English -e , inflectional ending of the i -stem declension usual for ethnonyms) occurs as an ethnonym (denoting members of the ancient Germanic peoples; compare sense A. 1a) in the Old English translation of Orosius Hist.:
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) v. xv. 132
Æfter þæm Germanie gesohton Agustus ungeniedde him to friþe.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) vi. xxiv.145
Ærest Germanie [L. Germani] þe be Donua wæron forhergedon Italiam oþ Rafennan þa burg.
The self-designation of the citizens of the modern country Germany (German Deutschland ) is deutsch , adjective (also used as noun, e.g. Deutscher (masculine),Deutsche (feminine) German citizen; compare Dutcher n.1).
Compare Deutsch , the name of the language (see Dutch adj.). For the names of the other major German-speaking peoples see Swiss adj., Austrian adj.1
With sense A. 1 compare German Germane (a1442 as German ; now the usual word in this sense), Germanier (1520; now rare). In early modern texts deutsch can also be used to refer to the ancient Germanic peoples (compare e.g. quot. 1550).
Compare Germanic adj.1 2. In German, the name of the ancient people is rarely used to refer to modern culture before the 18th cent., and becomes more prominent in the context of historical Romanticism.
The name of Germany.
Germany occurs as a place name in English contexts (denoting a succession of German-speaking political entities) from Old English onwards, in Old English as e.g.Germania (also in the compound Germanialand ), Germanie (sometimes difficult to distinguish from the ethnonym: see below), in Middle English as e.g. Germania ,Germanie , Germaine , Germayne , Germane ; all ultimately < classical Latin Germānia < Germānus + -ia -ia suffix1.
The concept of a Germanic state arose out of the Frankish kingdoms from the middle of the first millennium a.d. leading to the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor in 800 (consciously in the tradition of ancient Rome). Charlemagne's Empire was subsequently divided (in several stages) into what was eventually to become France on the one hand (mostly French-speaking; compare French adj.) and the Holy Roman Empire on the other (mostly German-speaking in its core; compare Holy Roman Empire n.). The latter comprised a large number of largely independent states (kingdoms, duchies, etc.) under the formal jurisdiction of the emperor.
After the formal dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Germany was used to refer to a large and varying number of its former member states collectively, although normally excluding Austria and other Habsburg possessions (see Austrian adj.1).
From 1871_Germany normally refers to the German Empire and its successors (compare discussion at Reich n.). After 1945 Germany was divided into four zones, each occupied by one of the victorious allied powers (Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union); in 1949 it was re-formed as two states, the Federal Republic of Germany out of the British, United States, and French occupation zones, and the German Democratic Republic out of the Soviet occupation zone (also known respectively as West Germany and East Germany ), which were reunified in 1990 as the Federal Republic of Germany . Compare West German adj. 2 and East German adj. 1b.
Although the German language is also spoken in Austria and Switzerland (and in some communities elsewhere), the place name Germany is not used to refer to Switzerland, and is used to refer to Austria only in the context of the Holy Roman Empire.
Compare the following early examples of the name in English contexts:
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iii. xi. 188
Swylce eac bi suðan sæ in Germania & eac somod þa dælas Hibernia Scotta ealondes se hlisa his [sc. St Oswald's] wundra bicwoom [L. Germaniae simul et Hiberniae partes attigit].
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 299
[Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious] made [his son] Lowys the second regne in Germania [L. in Germania].
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xiii. 732
Þis londe [sc. Almania] hatte Germania also [L.Alemannia..etiam germania dicta est].
1531 Bp. W. Barlow Dyaloge Lutheran Faccyons sig.
O, I holde it more conuenyent for relygyouse persons to were ye habytes by theyre fore fathers instytute, than to be arayed after the ruffyan inuencyon of many gospellers in Germany.
The name is also used historically to refer to the territory occupied by Germanic peoples before the formation of the medieval and modern states; until the 16th cent. this is the most common use. Compare the following early examples:
OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) i. xii. 52
Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie [L. de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus], þæt of Seaxum & of Angle & of Geatum.
c1325 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 2503
Þer come out of germaynie [?a1425 Digby germayne, c1425 Harl. germanie]..ssipes eiȝtetene.
?a1439 Lydgate tr. Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) vi. l. 2880
Cesar..Passyng the Alpies, rood thoruh Germanye.
Compare Anglo-Norman Germenie , Germanie , Germaine , the name of ancient and sub-Roman Germania (early 13th cent. or earlier), also used as the name of medieval Germany (second half of the 13th cent. or earlier). Compare also German Germanien , the name of ancient and sub-Roman Germania (1517, now the only sense), formerly also used by extension as the name of medieval and modern Germany (16th cent. or earlier).
The name of the modern country in German is Deutschland (see Dutchland n.).
Specific sense developments.
With sense A. 3b and German cotillion n. compare earlier allemande n. 1a, and Almain n. 2a.
The variant pronunciation /ˈdʒɑːmən/ (now only regional; compare the discussion at merchant n.) is sometimes reflected in spelling, especially in the 19th cent. (compare γ. forms). By the end of the 19th cent. this pronunciation had become rare in the standard language (compare quot. 1882 at sense B. 2). Compare also the surname Jarman (see below).
Surname evidence.
Perhaps attested earlier as a surname: John Jarman (1227), Johannes Germayne (1273), John Germyn (a1293), although these examples may alternatively be derived from a personal name based on the name of St Germanus (ultimately < the same classical Latin adjective). With use as a personal name compare Jerman filius Willelmi (1248).
A. n.
1a. hist. A member of any of the ancient Germanic-speaking peoples of north and central Europe, a Teuton.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1874) V. 31 (MED),
Þe bataile þat he dede aȝenst the Germayns [L. Germanos], Sclaves, and Sarmates.
1445 tr. Claudian's De Consulatu Stilichonis in Anglia (1905) 28 281
Why is not he redde with the worthiest, þat hath now vndirputte Vnto my power tho germaynes proude and frensh men [L. Germanos..Francosque]?
1550 W. Lynne tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles iii. fol. lxxxviij,
Of the Germanes [Ger. von Deudschen]. In the tyme of Augustus were the Germanes first attempted of the Romanes [Ger. haben die Römer erstlich Deudschland angegriffen].
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. 23
They that nominated themselves after their owne language Teutsch, Numidians and Hellenes, by the Romanes were named Germans [L. Germani], Mauri and Grecians.
1691 J. Hartcliffe Treat. Virtues 121
Neither among the old Germans did any one bear Arms until he was honored with a Spear and Target in their State-Assemblys.
1776 Gibbon Decline & Fall I. 222
The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters.
b. A native or inhabitant of Germany or (now hist.) of the regions of central Europe corresponding to modern Germany; a person descended from such Germans esp. one belonging to a German cultural community outside Germany.The precise signification depends on the varying extension given to the name Germany: see note in etymology.
See also High German n. 1, Low German n. 1. Sudeten German, Volga German, etc.: see the first element.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 287 (MED),
Þe empere passede from þe Grees to þe Frenschemen and to þe Germans, þat beeþ Almayns [L. ad Francos et Germanos].
a1464 J. Capgrave Chron. Eng. (Cambr.) 106
The thirde mad he Kyng to the Bavaris and the Germanes.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvj,
When the empyre was translated vnto the Germaynes..there was moch stryfe.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xviii. sig. E5,
O noble Germanys, god hath made yow a lyght vnto all rulers in the world.
a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) ii. iii. 72
Your Dane, your Germaine, and your swag-bellied Hollander; drinke ho, are nothing to your English.
1723 in tr. A.-T. Limojon de Saint-Didier Hermetical Triumph To Rdr. p. xiii,
The Germans speaking of Chymical Operations, and mentioning Fire, often mean Digestion, which is performed by Fire.
1781 Gibbon Decline & Fall III. 245
The Germans were less corrupt than the Italians.
a. The West Germanic language spoken in Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland, and by communities in the United States and elsewhere.When used without defining word or contextual indication = High German n. 2. See also Low German n. 2, Nether German at nether adj. 4a.
1594 R. Ashley tr. L. le Roy Interchangeable Course ii. f. 25,
The old Testament hath bin translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and into Latin; the new Testament out of Greek into Latin; and consequently both Testaments into Syriack, Chaldaick, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Armenian, Scythian, Sclauonian, German [Fr. Allemand], English, French, Italian, and into all languages vsed by men.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 19
They haue seene a four-footed beast called in Latine Simivulpa, in GreekAlopecopithecos, & in German Fuchssaff.
1688 E. Stillingfleet Council of Trent Examin'd iii. 52
These Homilies..were to be turned by the Bishops either into Rustick Roman, or German, as served best to the capacities of the People.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 13 Feb. (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099,
I am very willing that you should take a Saxon servant, who speaks nothing but German.
1798 S. T. Coleridge Satyrane's Lett. ii, in Biogr. Lit. (1882) 249
See how natural the German comes from me, though I have not yet been six weeks in the country!
b. With the. The German translation or equivalent of a word or phrase in another language. Chiefly with for. Cf. sense B. 1.
1723 tr. Antient War Knights Annot. 26 in tr. A.-T. Limojon de Saint-Didier Hermetical Triumph
The Latin Translator has in this Passage taken the German (for the word destroy) quite wrong.
1800 W. Whiter Etymologicon Magnum I. 163
Hammel is the German for a Sheep.
c. The German (in sense A. 2a) at a person's command; quality or means of expression in German. Usu. with modifying or possessive adjective.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 13 Feb. (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099
A sure way of keeping up your German, after you leave Germany.
d. German language (or literature) as a subject of study or examination. Cf. Compounds 1a.
1774 Acct. Soc. Promoting Christian Knowl. 98
A worthy Man, qualified to teach English and German, was not to be found among his People.
1800 W. Tooke Hist. Russia II. xii. 470
For the education of boys, a man is usually sought out who can teach french and german, mathematics, geography, history, natural history, and natural philosophy.
1. Spoken in Germany or other German-speaking places; belonging or relating to German; written or spoken in German.
1536 R. Taverner tr. P. Melanchthon Confessyon Fayth Germaynes f. 17,
Amonge the laten songes be mixed here & there Germane songes [Ger. teutsch Gesänge], which be added to teach the people.
1565 T. Stapleton tr. F. Staphylus Apologie f. 77,
George Gienger..hathe translated the Roman Breuiary in to the German tongue [L. Germanici sermonis] in so handsome and pure stile that the Psalter, the lessons and the ghospels be as pleasauntely to be reade in the German tongue [L. Germanicè] as they are in the Latin.
1602 R. Parsons Warn-word ii. iv. f. 23,
He [sc. Luther] concludeth with these German words Got helf myr, Amen.
1671 in M. Wood Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1950) X. 96
Mr. John Alexander Polonian craveing libertie to sett up ane schooll for learning the German and Polonian tongues.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 1 July (1932) (modernized text) III. 1176,
I desire that you will not fail to write a German letter, in the German character, once every fortnight, to Mr. Grevenkop.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Pref.,
Of words undoubtedly Teutonick the original is not always to be found in any ancient language, and I have therefore inserted Dutch or German substitutes.
2. Of or relating to Germany or Germans.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry V f. xxxvi,
This people had suche displeasure at the vnhonest fashions of the Germain women, that they made a law that the Females shuld not succede to any inheritance within that land.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum
German or of germanye, Germanus.
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxviii. 168
The Germaine or French gentlewymen.
1606 Let. ?Aug. (Lansdowne 241) f. 86v, in J. Sanderson Travels (1931) 231,
I thinke it, being a Jarman doctors wourke.., will in some matters delight and instruct.
a1616 Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iv. v. 65
They..set spurres, and away; like three Germane-diuels, three Doctor Faustasses.
1618 Owles Almanacke 7
The German Fencer cudgell'd most of our English Fencers now about a moneth past.
1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia ii. 26
That burning the dead was..the old Germane practise, is also asserted by Tacitus.
1676 J. Cooke Mellificium Chirurg. (ed. 3) 445
[Some instruments are] Of Horn, as Cups used at Germain-Baths.
1705 tr. W. Bosman New Descr. Coast of Guinea xi. 190
They are as Impertinent and Noisie as the..German Jews at their Synagogue at Amsterdam.
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxiii, in Poems 18
Then bowses drumlie German-water, To mak himsel look fair and fatter.
3
a. Having characteristics or qualities attributed to or possessed by Germans or things from Germany.
1787 G. Greive tr. F. J. de Chastellux Trav. N.-Amer. II. 310
Mr. Calver, who had treated us with an anxiety and respect, more German than American [Fr. plus allemand qu'américain],..led us to see the saw-mill.
1789 J. Pinkerton Enq. Hist. Scotl. I. ii. i. 25
Strabo shews the Belgic manners to have been quite German; and says risibly, that the Germans were so called by the Romans, as being Germani, or brothers German of the Belgic Gauls.
a. Complementary.
b. With participial adjectives.
German-bred adj. (and n.)
1796 Daily Advertiser 4 June 2/2
A black Gelding, about 15 Hands and a Half high, German bred.
German-built adj.
1750 Summer Voy. Gulph of Venice 5
A gallant Sailor ev'ry Inch, High up the Gulph unlading his rich Freight, In the P——a, German built, a fine First-rate.
1761 C. Hervey Let. 31 Oct. (1785) III. xlv. 497
Some country people were forced to work a long time with pick-axes and shovels, before they could make a way for the German built coach I then had.
German bezoar
n. a small stony concretion from the stomach of a chamois (see bezoarn. 2).
1663 G. Harvey Archelogia Philosophica Nova II. ii. ii. 226
The German Bezoar stones are taken out of the Bellies of some Does that haunt the Alpes.
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica ii. 859
The German Bezoar is a Substance so far indeed of the Nature of the other Bezoars, that it is found in the Stomach of an Animal.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth III. 69
The concretion sometimes found in the stomach of this animal [sc. the chamois], called the German bezoar.
German clock
n. hist. spec. an early, esp. 16th- or 17th- cent., clock of elaborate construction, often incorporating automata; cf. German watch n.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 185
A woman that is like a Iermane Cloake [sc. clock], Still a repairing: euer out of frame.
1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iv. ii, in Wks. I. 570
She takes her selfe asunder still when she goes to bed,..and about next day noone is put together againe, like a great Germane clocke.
a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) i. v. B iij,
Let us try To win that old Eremit thing, that, like An Image in a German clock, doth move, Not walke.
1795 Elisa Powell I. v. 53
The same pitiful trifles constantly returned, like the exact repetition of the movements in an old German clock.
German cockroach n. a small, pale brown cockroach, Blatella germanica, which is a cosmopolitan pest found typically in bakeries and other buildings; also called croton bug. [After German deutsche Schabe (1792 or earlier) or its apparent model scientific Latin Blatta germanica ( Linnaeus Systema Naturæ ed. 13 (1767) I. 688; now Blatella germanica); compare French blatte germanique (1821 or earlier).]
German Confederation n. †(a) an alliance of German states from 1785 to the early 1790s, originally comprising Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony, and subsequently enlarged to include various smaller states (obs.); (b) the union of German states under the presidency of the Emperor of Austria from 1815 to 1866; = Germanic Confederation n. at Germanicadj.1 and n. Special uses (now hist.). [In sense (b) after German Deutscher Bund (1815 as an official name; late 18th cent. in political theory). The German name for sense (a) is Fürstenbund, lit. ‘confederation of Princes’, also (more fully) deutscher Fürstenbund, lit. ‘German confederation of Princes’ (both 1785).]
1786 Whitehall Evening Post 24 Jan. 1/1
The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel conforms exactly to the views and intentions of his father and predecessor, and has acceded to the German Confederation.
† German devil
n. Obs. a contrivance for digging up roots, perh. a sort of screw jack.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) iii. 22
That small Engine, which by some is cal'd the German-devil, reform'd, after this manner, and duely applied, might be very expedient for this purpose [sc. the extirpation of roots].
1683 E. Chamberlayne Present State Eng. (new ed.) iii. 100
For the grubbing up of Stumps of Oak, there is an Engine call'd the German Devil.
† German duck n. Obs. slang (a) a dish of sheepshead and onions; (b) a sausage.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue
German duck, half a sheep's head boiled with onions.
German Empire
n. †(a) the Holy Roman Empire; cf. Reich n. 1a (obs.); (b) an empire in German-speaking central Europe from 1871 to 1918, created by Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian War by the union of twenty-five German states under the King of Prussia; cf. Reich n. 1b (now hist.).
1550 W. Lynne in tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles sig. *.viii,
This Germaine empire shal decay & faile.
1603 R. Parsons 1st Pt. Treat. Conuersions in Treat. Three Conuersions Eng. I. ii. 391
Partly by malice and emulation of them, that favoured the German Empire against the Pope.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word),
King of the Romans, in our Age, is a Prince elected, and design'd Successor to the German Empire.
German flute
n. Music (now chiefly hist.) a transverse flute (see flute n.1 1).
1718 Post Boy 7 Aug. (advt.)
J.G. Schickhard: Solos for a German flute a hoboy or violin, with a thorough bass for the harpsicord or bass violin.
1724 C. Morris Diary 22 May (1934) 108
Mr Broad got Mr Grano to Entertain me with his Trumpet, German-Flute, & Small Flute.
1754 Earl of Chesterfield in World No. 101 (end),
Upon the same shelf with their German flute, their powder-mask and their four-horse-whip.
1781 Barbados Mercury 27 Oct.
Two German Flutes with silver keys, & hooped with ivory, one of a dark brown, the other a pale yellow colour.
German gold
n. (a) an imitation gold leaf; spec. = Dutch foil n., Dutch gold n. atDutch adj., n.1, and adv. Special uses 1b; (b) a powder made from this.
1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs II. ii. xi. 337/1
They grind this Brass over and over again, 'till it becomes an impalpable Powder, which they sell under the Name of German Gold in Powder.
German Lombard
n. hist. a wrapping paper ranging in size from 22
1712 Act 10 Anne c. 18 in Statutes of Realm (1822) IX. 603
For and upon all Paper usually called or knowne by the Name of German Lombard which shall be imported or brought in..One Shilling for every Reame.
1789 Tables of Net Duties Payable at Paper, Lombard, viz German Lombard, the ream.
German marmot
n. now rare the European hamster, Cricetus cricetus; = hamster n. a.
1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds 278 Circassian..M[armot] with ears like those of mice:..size of the German marmot.
German mile
n. now hist. any of several measures of distance (typically between 4 and 5 English miles) used in German-speaking countries.
1550 W. Lynne in tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles f. cclxxvij,
It rayned corne out of the element by the space of two houres, which rayne stretched in lenght .vi. Germayn myles, and in breedth halfe a Germayne myle in some places.
1594 T. Blundeville Exercises ii. f. 51, 4.
Italian miles doe make but one Germaine mile.
1793 C. Lindsay Extracts Tempelhoffe's Hist. Seven Years War I. 70
Allow a German mile to be two thousand Rhineland rods in length; the square of that mile contains four millions.
German Ocean
n. the sea to the east of Great Britain, the North Sea. [After post-classical Latin oceanus Germanicus (1531 or earlier; compare classical Latin mare Germānicum the Baltic Sea), Hellenistic Greek Γερμανικὸς Ὠκεανός (Ptolemy). Compare German deutsches Meer (1536 or earlier; apparently after Latin). Compare also German Bight (German Deutsche Bucht), the name of the south-eastern part of the North Sea.]
1573 T. Twyne tr. H. Llwyd Breuiary of Britayne f. 49,
Beyonde Scotlande, in the Germane Oceane [L. in Oceano Germanico]: are the Ilandes called Orchades, wherof the biggest is called Pomonia.
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Essex 317
Essex hath..the German Ocean on the East.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl.
Teutonic, something belonging to the Teutones, an ancient People of Germany, inhabiting chiefly along the Coasts of the German Ocean.
German sausage
n. a type of sausage made from pork, alone or combined with beef or veal, often pre-dried or smoked to aid preservation, seasoned with herbs and spices, and boiled.
1773 C. Mason Lady's Assistant 339 (heading)
German sausages.
1790 15 Theologico-controversistical Conf. (ed. 2) v. 134
The ingredients [of the pottage] are a green goard sliced, rosemary, wild lettuce, one-quarter pound anchovies, rice, with other herbs of various kinds, a German sausage.
German Sea
n. = German Ocean n.
1577 W. Harrison Descr. Scotl. v. 5/2 in R. Holinshed Chron. I
Waxing more fertile on that part whiche stretcheth toward yeGermaine sea, it yeeldeth it self to culture, & rendreth some grayne.
1635 J. von Langeren in Direct. for Eng. Traviller f. 29,
Northfolke... Germain sea. N[orth].
1798 A. Thomson Lett. Traveller xv. 153
The Rhine, that noble river which rises in the country of the Grisons, in Switzerland, and running northward, and towards the west, discharges itself by different channels into the German sea.
German sheet glass
n. (also German sheet) now chiefly hist. probably: a type of window glass made from German potash glass.
1777 N. Brit. Intelligencer 21 May 243/1
A duty of 7s. per cwt. on all materials or metal used in making spread glass, 14s. ditto for all materials, &c. used in making all other sort of window glass, and on German sheet glass.
German steel
n. now hist. steel of a type made (originally or principally) in Germany;esp. (a) steel made directly from siderite; (b) steel made from wrought iron by cementation.
1744 C. Carroll Invoice 16 Feb. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1926) 21 244, 3
ffaggotts German or Square steel.
1798 Jrnl. Nat. Philos. May 65
The steel obtained immediately from the ore by simple fusion, is called natural steel. It is likewise distinguished by the name of German steel, because it comes principally from Germany.
German text
n. (a) an elaborate script, derived from German examples but employed in English documents for its ornamental value; (b) (not in technical use) = Fraktur n.
1658 E. Cocker Pen's Triumph (new ed.) 3,
I have sometimes wrote the German Text with a great Pen having two slits.
1763 W. Massey Origin & Progress Lett. ii. 28
A neat and correct alphabet of the german text capitals.
German vitriol
n. [after post-classical Latin vitriolum Germanicum (1558 or earlier)] now hist. a mixture of iron and copper sulphates; (also) †concentrated sulphuric acid (obs.).
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health iii. f.193,
The learned Fallopio, and singuler practisioner Leonard Fiorauant, doe rather commend and preferre the Romaine, then the Germaine Vitriol [L. Fallop. Rom. Germanico præfert].
1686 W. Harris tr. N. Lémery Course Chym. (ed. 2) i. xviii. 343
Putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried,..I distilled first of all the Phlegm.
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica 139
They have mistaken for it the common blue green German Vitriol which contains Iron and Copper mixed.
German watch
n. hist. an early watch, esp. of the 16th- or 17th-cent., with an elaborate case; cf. German clock n.
1611 T. Middleton & T. Dekker Roaring Girle sig. Hv,
Here take my Germane watch, hang't vp in sight, That I may see her hang in English for't.
1784 H. Walpole Descr. Villa Strawberry-Hill (new ed.) 62
An ancient square German watch, curiously chased in silver gilt.
S3. In the names of plants.
German iris
n. any of numerous cultivated varieties of bearded iris (now usu. thought to be of hybrid origin, but sometimes regarded as a distinct species, Iris germanica). [After French iris d'Allemagne (1706 in the passage translated in quot. 1706) and its apparent model post-classical Latin iris germanica (1549 or earlier).]
1706 G. London & H. Wise Retir'd Gard'ner II. iv. 416
The German Iris [Fr. l'Iris d'Allemagne], White .
German knotgrass
n. [compare post-classical Latin polygonum germanicum (1670 in Ray (compare quot. 1670), or earlier)] now rare knawel, Scleranthus annuus, a creeping plant with pairs of small pointed leaves and inconspicuous green flowers, native to Eurasia and North Africa but common as a weed in many temperate areas.
1670 J. Ray Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ 248
Polygonum Germanicum, vel Knawell Germanorum..German Knot-grass, or Knawell.
1710 W. Salmon Botanologia I. 591
Our Moderns call it Polygonum Germanicum, and we in English Knawel, or German knotgrass.
German madwort
n. †(a) a labiate plant with narrow, toothed leaves and purple flowers (perh. a member of the genus Sideritis) (obs. rare); (b) = madwort n. 3 (nowrare). [With sense (a), compare post-classical Latin alyssum germanicum (1597 in the same source as quot. 1597, or earlier)] .
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 379
The Germaine Madwoort bringeth foorth from a fibrous roote, two broad, rough, and hoarie leaues.
1670 J. Ray Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ 19
Alysson Germanicum echoides..Small wild Bugloss, great Goose-grass, German Madwort.
1701 R. Morden New Descr. & State of Eng. 76
Here are many excellent plants which grow, and in Cambridgeshire, as..German-Madwort, Water-Pimpernel, [etc.].
German tamarisk now rare and chiefly hist. a European shrub closely related to the tamarisks (genus Tamarix), Myricaria germanica (family Tamaricaceae), having glaucous leaves, upright branches, and pale pink flowers. [After post-classical Latin tamarix germanica (1618 or earlier); compare French tamarisc d'Allemagne (apparently a1708 (published posthumously in 1717) in the passage translated in quot. 1708).]
[1708 tr. J. P. de Tournefort Materia Medica ii. ix. 106
The German Shrub-Tamarisk has Roots about the Bigness of a Man's Leg cover'd with a thick Bark.]
1714 Philos. Trans 1713 (Royal Soc.) 28 56
German Tamarisk... This differs from the French in having thicker greyish Leaves and spiked Flowers, which turn into a white Down.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attrib. and objective, with the sense ‘that teaches or studies German, relating to the teaching or study of German’, as German class, German master, German scholar,German student, German teacher, etc. Cf. sense A. 2d.In quot. 1748 in the context of Germany, so perh. simply ‘a master who is German’.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 5 Sept. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1206
You will also desire your German master to teach you [etc.].
1790 W. Coxe Trav. Poland, Russia, Sweden & Denmark III. xi. x. 221
This academy is provided with professors of history, mathematics, rhetoric, and natural history; with a German master, and a drawing master.
b. Objective.
C2.
a.
German-Jewish
adj. [compare German deutsch-jüdisch (1709 or earlier)]
1787 European Mag. Oct. 320/1
The German Jewish nation went the day before yesterday, at five o'clock in the afternoon, to the Synagogue.
German-Swiss
adj. and n. (cf. Swiss-German at Swiss adj. a).
1736 S.-Carolina Gaz. 25 Sept. 2/2
A great Number of German Swiss People just arrived in the Ship Eagle.
1741 W. Stephens Jrnl. 10 Dec. (1958) I. 15
The Saltzburghers with their Effects, having been first brought a Shore, the next after them were the German Swiss.
1764 J. Boswell Jrnl. 25 Nov. in Boswell on Grand Tour (1953) I. 199,
I found him a German-Swiss literatus, full of animal spirits.
German-American
(a) n. an American of German ancestry; (b) adj. of or relating to German-Americans.
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 423
The weight of the oar lies on the women, as is the case with the German Americans.
C3. Preceding and in apposition to the names of other languages (as German–English,German–French, German–Italian, etc.), esp. in the titles of dictionaries in which German words are followed by their translations in the other language.
1796 N. Bailey (title)
Dictionary English-German and German-English.
Etymology:
< classical Latin Germānus, used (as adjective and noun) as the designation of persons belonging to a group of related peoples inhabiting central and northern Europe, and speaking the dialects from which the ‘Germanic’ languages have developed, of uncertain and disputed origin (see note).
Compare Anglo-Norman germain (adjective) (c1235), germaneis , germeins , germaniens (noun) German, inhabitant of German regions, the German language (all second half of the 13th cent.). Compare Almain adj. and Dutch adj.
The name of the people.
The classical Latin name Germānī (plural) for groups of people living around and east of the Rhine is first attested in the mid first cent. b.c. in the writings of Julius Caesar; the name is still referred to as recent by Tacitus in the following century. The name was apparently not used in any form by the Germanic peoples themselves (compare quot. 2010 at sense A. 1a) and may have been originally given either by one of the neighbouring Celtic-speaking peoples or by the Romans themselves.
Strabo suggests a derivation < classical Latin germānus real, genuine (see germane adj.), but this cannot be substantiated from the usages of either word in other early sources. A number of attempts have been made since the 18th cent. to derive the name from Germanic or Celtic bases, but these are all problematic; compare the discussion by G. Neumann in J. Hoops's Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (ed. 2, 1998) XI. 259–65.
Old English Germanie Germans
( < classical Latin Germānia + Old English -e , inflectional ending of the i -stem declension usual for ethnonyms) occurs as an ethnonym (denoting members of the ancient Germanic peoples; compare sense A. 1a) in the Old English translation of Orosius Hist.:
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) v. xv. 132
Æfter þæm Germanie gesohton Agustus ungeniedde him to friþe.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) vi. xxiv.145
Ærest Germanie [L. Germani] þe be Donua wæron forhergedon Italiam oþ Rafennan þa burg.
The self-designation of the citizens of the modern country Germany (German Deutschland ) is deutsch , adjective (also used as noun, e.g. Deutscher (masculine),Deutsche (feminine) German citizen; compare Dutcher n.1).
Compare Deutsch , the name of the language (see Dutch adj.). For the names of the other major German-speaking peoples see Swiss adj., Austrian adj.1
With sense A. 1 compare German Germane (a1442 as German ; now the usual word in this sense), Germanier (1520; now rare). In early modern texts deutsch can also be used to refer to the ancient Germanic peoples (compare e.g. quot. 1550).
Compare Germanic adj.1 2. In German, the name of the ancient people is rarely used to refer to modern culture before the 18th cent., and becomes more prominent in the context of historical Romanticism.
The name of Germany.
Germany occurs as a place name in English contexts (denoting a succession of German-speaking political entities) from Old English onwards, in Old English as e.g.Germania (also in the compound Germanialand ), Germanie (sometimes difficult to distinguish from the ethnonym: see below), in Middle English as e.g. Germania ,Germanie , Germaine , Germayne , Germane ; all ultimately < classical Latin Germānia < Germānus + -ia -ia suffix1.
The concept of a Germanic state arose out of the Frankish kingdoms from the middle of the first millennium a.d. leading to the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor in 800 (consciously in the tradition of ancient Rome). Charlemagne's Empire was subsequently divided (in several stages) into what was eventually to become France on the one hand (mostly French-speaking; compare French adj.) and the Holy Roman Empire on the other (mostly German-speaking in its core; compare Holy Roman Empire n.). The latter comprised a large number of largely independent states (kingdoms, duchies, etc.) under the formal jurisdiction of the emperor.
After the formal dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Germany was used to refer to a large and varying number of its former member states collectively, although normally excluding Austria and other Habsburg possessions (see Austrian adj.1).
From 1871_Germany normally refers to the German Empire and its successors (compare discussion at Reich n.). After 1945 Germany was divided into four zones, each occupied by one of the victorious allied powers (Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union); in 1949 it was re-formed as two states, the Federal Republic of Germany out of the British, United States, and French occupation zones, and the German Democratic Republic out of the Soviet occupation zone (also known respectively as West Germany and East Germany ), which were reunified in 1990 as the Federal Republic of Germany . Compare West German adj. 2 and East German adj. 1b.
Although the German language is also spoken in Austria and Switzerland (and in some communities elsewhere), the place name Germany is not used to refer to Switzerland, and is used to refer to Austria only in the context of the Holy Roman Empire.
Compare the following early examples of the name in English contexts:
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iii. xi. 188
Swylce eac bi suðan sæ in Germania & eac somod þa dælas Hibernia Scotta ealondes se hlisa his [sc. St Oswald's] wundra bicwoom [L. Germaniae simul et Hiberniae partes attigit].
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 299
[Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious] made [his son] Lowys the second regne in Germania [L. in Germania].
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xiii. 732
Þis londe [sc. Almania] hatte Germania also [L.Alemannia..etiam germania dicta est].
1531 Bp. W. Barlow Dyaloge Lutheran Faccyons sig.
O, I holde it more conuenyent for relygyouse persons to were ye habytes by theyre fore fathers instytute, than to be arayed after the ruffyan inuencyon of many gospellers in Germany.
The name is also used historically to refer to the territory occupied by Germanic peoples before the formation of the medieval and modern states; until the 16th cent. this is the most common use. Compare the following early examples:
OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) i. xii. 52
Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie [L. de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus], þæt of Seaxum & of Angle & of Geatum.
c1325 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 2503
Þer come out of germaynie [?a1425 Digby germayne, c1425 Harl. germanie]..ssipes eiȝtetene.
?a1439 Lydgate tr. Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) vi. l. 2880
Cesar..Passyng the Alpies, rood thoruh Germanye.
Compare Anglo-Norman Germenie , Germanie , Germaine , the name of ancient and sub-Roman Germania (early 13th cent. or earlier), also used as the name of medieval Germany (second half of the 13th cent. or earlier). Compare also German Germanien , the name of ancient and sub-Roman Germania (1517, now the only sense), formerly also used by extension as the name of medieval and modern Germany (16th cent. or earlier).
The name of the modern country in German is Deutschland (see Dutchland n.).
Specific sense developments.
With sense A. 3b and German cotillion n. compare earlier allemande n. 1a, and Almain n. 2a.
The variant pronunciation /ˈdʒɑːmən/ (now only regional; compare the discussion at merchant n.) is sometimes reflected in spelling, especially in the 19th cent. (compare γ. forms). By the end of the 19th cent. this pronunciation had become rare in the standard language (compare quot. 1882 at sense B. 2). Compare also the surname Jarman (see below).
Surname evidence.
Perhaps attested earlier as a surname: John Jarman (1227), Johannes Germayne (1273), John Germyn (a1293), although these examples may alternatively be derived from a personal name based on the name of St Germanus (ultimately < the same classical Latin adjective). With use as a personal name compare Jerman filius Willelmi (1248).
A. n.
1a. hist. A member of any of the ancient Germanic-speaking peoples of north and central Europe, a Teuton.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1874) V. 31 (MED),
Þe bataile þat he dede aȝenst the Germayns [L. Germanos], Sclaves, and Sarmates.
1445 tr. Claudian's De Consulatu Stilichonis in Anglia (1905) 28 281
Why is not he redde with the worthiest, þat hath now vndirputte Vnto my power tho germaynes proude and frensh men [L. Germanos..Francosque]?
1550 W. Lynne tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles iii. fol. lxxxviij,
Of the Germanes [Ger. von Deudschen]. In the tyme of Augustus were the Germanes first attempted of the Romanes [Ger. haben die Römer erstlich Deudschland angegriffen].
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. 23
They that nominated themselves after their owne language Teutsch, Numidians and Hellenes, by the Romanes were named Germans [L. Germani], Mauri and Grecians.
1691 J. Hartcliffe Treat. Virtues 121
Neither among the old Germans did any one bear Arms until he was honored with a Spear and Target in their State-Assemblys.
1776 Gibbon Decline & Fall I. 222
The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters.
b. A native or inhabitant of Germany or (now hist.) of the regions of central Europe corresponding to modern Germany; a person descended from such Germans esp. one belonging to a German cultural community outside Germany.The precise signification depends on the varying extension given to the name Germany: see note in etymology.
See also High German n. 1, Low German n. 1. Sudeten German, Volga German, etc.: see the first element.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 287 (MED),
Þe empere passede from þe Grees to þe Frenschemen and to þe Germans, þat beeþ Almayns [L. ad Francos et Germanos].
a1464 J. Capgrave Chron. Eng. (Cambr.) 106
The thirde mad he Kyng to the Bavaris and the Germanes.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvj,
When the empyre was translated vnto the Germaynes..there was moch stryfe.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xviii. sig. E5,
O noble Germanys, god hath made yow a lyght vnto all rulers in the world.
a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) ii. iii. 72
Your Dane, your Germaine, and your swag-bellied Hollander; drinke ho, are nothing to your English.
1723 in tr. A.-T. Limojon de Saint-Didier Hermetical Triumph To Rdr. p. xiii,
The Germans speaking of Chymical Operations, and mentioning Fire, often mean Digestion, which is performed by Fire.
1781 Gibbon Decline & Fall III. 245
The Germans were less corrupt than the Italians.
a. The West Germanic language spoken in Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland, and by communities in the United States and elsewhere.When used without defining word or contextual indication = High German n. 2. See also Low German n. 2, Nether German at nether adj. 4a.
1594 R. Ashley tr. L. le Roy Interchangeable Course ii. f. 25,
The old Testament hath bin translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and into Latin; the new Testament out of Greek into Latin; and consequently both Testaments into Syriack, Chaldaick, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Armenian, Scythian, Sclauonian, German [Fr. Allemand], English, French, Italian, and into all languages vsed by men.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 19
They haue seene a four-footed beast called in Latine Simivulpa, in GreekAlopecopithecos, & in German Fuchssaff.
1688 E. Stillingfleet Council of Trent Examin'd iii. 52
These Homilies..were to be turned by the Bishops either into Rustick Roman, or German, as served best to the capacities of the People.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 13 Feb. (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099,
I am very willing that you should take a Saxon servant, who speaks nothing but German.
1798 S. T. Coleridge Satyrane's Lett. ii, in Biogr. Lit. (1882) 249
See how natural the German comes from me, though I have not yet been six weeks in the country!
b. With the. The German translation or equivalent of a word or phrase in another language. Chiefly with for. Cf. sense B. 1.
1723 tr. Antient War Knights Annot. 26 in tr. A.-T. Limojon de Saint-Didier Hermetical Triumph
The Latin Translator has in this Passage taken the German (for the word destroy) quite wrong.
1800 W. Whiter Etymologicon Magnum I. 163
Hammel is the German for a Sheep.
c. The German (in sense A. 2a) at a person's command; quality or means of expression in German. Usu. with modifying or possessive adjective.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 13 Feb. (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099
A sure way of keeping up your German, after you leave Germany.
d. German language (or literature) as a subject of study or examination. Cf. Compounds 1a.
1774 Acct. Soc. Promoting Christian Knowl. 98
A worthy Man, qualified to teach English and German, was not to be found among his People.
1800 W. Tooke Hist. Russia II. xii. 470
For the education of boys, a man is usually sought out who can teach french and german, mathematics, geography, history, natural history, and natural philosophy.
1. Spoken in Germany or other German-speaking places; belonging or relating to German; written or spoken in German.
1536 R. Taverner tr. P. Melanchthon Confessyon Fayth Germaynes f. 17,
Amonge the laten songes be mixed here & there Germane songes [Ger. teutsch Gesänge], which be added to teach the people.
1565 T. Stapleton tr. F. Staphylus Apologie f. 77,
George Gienger..hathe translated the Roman Breuiary in to the German tongue [L. Germanici sermonis] in so handsome and pure stile that the Psalter, the lessons and the ghospels be as pleasauntely to be reade in the German tongue [L. Germanicè] as they are in the Latin.
1602 R. Parsons Warn-word ii. iv. f. 23,
He [sc. Luther] concludeth with these German words Got helf myr, Amen.
1671 in M. Wood Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1950) X. 96
Mr. John Alexander Polonian craveing libertie to sett up ane schooll for learning the German and Polonian tongues.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 1 July (1932) (modernized text) III. 1176,
I desire that you will not fail to write a German letter, in the German character, once every fortnight, to Mr. Grevenkop.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Pref.,
Of words undoubtedly Teutonick the original is not always to be found in any ancient language, and I have therefore inserted Dutch or German substitutes.
2. Of or relating to Germany or Germans.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry V f. xxxvi,
This people had suche displeasure at the vnhonest fashions of the Germain women, that they made a law that the Females shuld not succede to any inheritance within that land.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum
German or of germanye, Germanus.
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxviii. 168
The Germaine or French gentlewymen.
1606 Let. ?Aug. (Lansdowne 241) f. 86v, in J. Sanderson Travels (1931) 231,
I thinke it, being a Jarman doctors wourke.., will in some matters delight and instruct.
a1616 Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iv. v. 65
They..set spurres, and away; like three Germane-diuels, three Doctor Faustasses.
1618 Owles Almanacke 7
The German Fencer cudgell'd most of our English Fencers now about a moneth past.
1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia ii. 26
That burning the dead was..the old Germane practise, is also asserted by Tacitus.
1676 J. Cooke Mellificium Chirurg. (ed. 3) 445
[Some instruments are] Of Horn, as Cups used at Germain-Baths.
1705 tr. W. Bosman New Descr. Coast of Guinea xi. 190
They are as Impertinent and Noisie as the..German Jews at their Synagogue at Amsterdam.
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxiii, in Poems 18
Then bowses drumlie German-water, To mak himsel look fair and fatter.
3
a. Having characteristics or qualities attributed to or possessed by Germans or things from Germany.
1787 G. Greive tr. F. J. de Chastellux Trav. N.-Amer. II. 310
Mr. Calver, who had treated us with an anxiety and respect, more German than American [Fr. plus allemand qu'américain],..led us to see the saw-mill.
1789 J. Pinkerton Enq. Hist. Scotl. I. ii. i. 25
Strabo shews the Belgic manners to have been quite German; and says risibly, that the Germans were so called by the Romans, as being Germani, or brothers German of the Belgic Gauls.
a. Complementary.
b. With participial adjectives.
German-bred adj. (and n.)
1796 Daily Advertiser 4 June 2/2
A black Gelding, about 15 Hands and a Half high, German bred.
German-built adj.
1750 Summer Voy. Gulph of Venice 5
A gallant Sailor ev'ry Inch, High up the Gulph unlading his rich Freight, In the P——a, German built, a fine First-rate.
1761 C. Hervey Let. 31 Oct. (1785) III. xlv. 497
Some country people were forced to work a long time with pick-axes and shovels, before they could make a way for the German built coach I then had.
German bezoar
n. a small stony concretion from the stomach of a chamois (see bezoarn. 2).
1663 G. Harvey Archelogia Philosophica Nova II. ii. ii. 226
The German Bezoar stones are taken out of the Bellies of some Does that haunt the Alpes.
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica ii. 859
The German Bezoar is a Substance so far indeed of the Nature of the other Bezoars, that it is found in the Stomach of an Animal.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth III. 69
The concretion sometimes found in the stomach of this animal [sc. the chamois], called the German bezoar.
German clock
n. hist. spec. an early, esp. 16th- or 17th- cent., clock of elaborate construction, often incorporating automata; cf. German watch n.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 185
A woman that is like a Iermane Cloake [sc. clock], Still a repairing: euer out of frame.
1616 B. Jonson Epicœne iv. ii, in Wks. I. 570
She takes her selfe asunder still when she goes to bed,..and about next day noone is put together againe, like a great Germane clocke.
a1643 W. Cartwright Ordinary (1651) i. v. B iij,
Let us try To win that old Eremit thing, that, like An Image in a German clock, doth move, Not walke.
1795 Elisa Powell I. v. 53
The same pitiful trifles constantly returned, like the exact repetition of the movements in an old German clock.
German cockroach n. a small, pale brown cockroach, Blatella germanica, which is a cosmopolitan pest found typically in bakeries and other buildings; also called croton bug. [After German deutsche Schabe (1792 or earlier) or its apparent model scientific Latin Blatta germanica ( Linnaeus Systema Naturæ ed. 13 (1767) I. 688; now Blatella germanica); compare French blatte germanique (1821 or earlier).]
German Confederation n. †(a) an alliance of German states from 1785 to the early 1790s, originally comprising Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony, and subsequently enlarged to include various smaller states (obs.); (b) the union of German states under the presidency of the Emperor of Austria from 1815 to 1866; = Germanic Confederation n. at Germanicadj.1 and n. Special uses (now hist.). [In sense (b) after German Deutscher Bund (1815 as an official name; late 18th cent. in political theory). The German name for sense (a) is Fürstenbund, lit. ‘confederation of Princes’, also (more fully) deutscher Fürstenbund, lit. ‘German confederation of Princes’ (both 1785).]
1786 Whitehall Evening Post 24 Jan. 1/1
The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel conforms exactly to the views and intentions of his father and predecessor, and has acceded to the German Confederation.
† German devil
n. Obs. a contrivance for digging up roots, perh. a sort of screw jack.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) iii. 22
That small Engine, which by some is cal'd the German-devil, reform'd, after this manner, and duely applied, might be very expedient for this purpose [sc. the extirpation of roots].
1683 E. Chamberlayne Present State Eng. (new ed.) iii. 100
For the grubbing up of Stumps of Oak, there is an Engine call'd the German Devil.
† German duck n. Obs. slang (a) a dish of sheepshead and onions; (b) a sausage.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue
German duck, half a sheep's head boiled with onions.
German Empire
n. †(a) the Holy Roman Empire; cf. Reich n. 1a (obs.); (b) an empire in German-speaking central Europe from 1871 to 1918, created by Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian War by the union of twenty-five German states under the King of Prussia; cf. Reich n. 1b (now hist.).
1550 W. Lynne in tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles sig. *.viii,
This Germaine empire shal decay & faile.
1603 R. Parsons 1st Pt. Treat. Conuersions in Treat. Three Conuersions Eng. I. ii. 391
Partly by malice and emulation of them, that favoured the German Empire against the Pope.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word),
King of the Romans, in our Age, is a Prince elected, and design'd Successor to the German Empire.
German flute
n. Music (now chiefly hist.) a transverse flute (see flute n.1 1).
1718 Post Boy 7 Aug. (advt.)
J.G. Schickhard: Solos for a German flute a hoboy or violin, with a thorough bass for the harpsicord or bass violin.
1724 C. Morris Diary 22 May (1934) 108
Mr Broad got Mr Grano to Entertain me with his Trumpet, German-Flute, & Small Flute.
1754 Earl of Chesterfield in World No. 101 (end),
Upon the same shelf with their German flute, their powder-mask and their four-horse-whip.
1781 Barbados Mercury 27 Oct.
Two German Flutes with silver keys, & hooped with ivory, one of a dark brown, the other a pale yellow colour.
German gold
n. (a) an imitation gold leaf; spec. = Dutch foil n., Dutch gold n. atDutch adj., n.1, and adv. Special uses 1b; (b) a powder made from this.
1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs II. ii. xi. 337/1
They grind this Brass over and over again, 'till it becomes an impalpable Powder, which they sell under the Name of German Gold in Powder.
German Lombard
n. hist. a wrapping paper ranging in size from 22
1712 Act 10 Anne c. 18 in Statutes of Realm (1822) IX. 603
For and upon all Paper usually called or knowne by the Name of German Lombard which shall be imported or brought in..One Shilling for every Reame.
1789 Tables of Net Duties Payable at Paper, Lombard, viz German Lombard, the ream.
German marmot
n. now rare the European hamster, Cricetus cricetus; = hamster n. a.
1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds 278 Circassian..M[armot] with ears like those of mice:..size of the German marmot.
German mile
n. now hist. any of several measures of distance (typically between 4 and 5 English miles) used in German-speaking countries.
1550 W. Lynne in tr. J. Carion Thre Bks. Cronicles f. cclxxvij,
It rayned corne out of the element by the space of two houres, which rayne stretched in lenght .vi. Germayn myles, and in breedth halfe a Germayne myle in some places.
1594 T. Blundeville Exercises ii. f. 51, 4.
Italian miles doe make but one Germaine mile.
1793 C. Lindsay Extracts Tempelhoffe's Hist. Seven Years War I. 70
Allow a German mile to be two thousand Rhineland rods in length; the square of that mile contains four millions.
German Ocean
n. the sea to the east of Great Britain, the North Sea. [After post-classical Latin oceanus Germanicus (1531 or earlier; compare classical Latin mare Germānicum the Baltic Sea), Hellenistic Greek Γερμανικὸς Ὠκεανός (Ptolemy). Compare German deutsches Meer (1536 or earlier; apparently after Latin). Compare also German Bight (German Deutsche Bucht), the name of the south-eastern part of the North Sea.]
1573 T. Twyne tr. H. Llwyd Breuiary of Britayne f. 49,
Beyonde Scotlande, in the Germane Oceane [L. in Oceano Germanico]: are the Ilandes called Orchades, wherof the biggest is called Pomonia.
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Essex 317
Essex hath..the German Ocean on the East.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl.
Teutonic, something belonging to the Teutones, an ancient People of Germany, inhabiting chiefly along the Coasts of the German Ocean.
German sausage
n. a type of sausage made from pork, alone or combined with beef or veal, often pre-dried or smoked to aid preservation, seasoned with herbs and spices, and boiled.
1773 C. Mason Lady's Assistant 339 (heading)
German sausages.
1790 15 Theologico-controversistical Conf. (ed. 2) v. 134
The ingredients [of the pottage] are a green goard sliced, rosemary, wild lettuce, one-quarter pound anchovies, rice, with other herbs of various kinds, a German sausage.
German Sea
n. = German Ocean n.
1577 W. Harrison Descr. Scotl. v. 5/2 in R. Holinshed Chron. I
Waxing more fertile on that part whiche stretcheth toward yeGermaine sea, it yeeldeth it self to culture, & rendreth some grayne.
1635 J. von Langeren in Direct. for Eng. Traviller f. 29,
Northfolke... Germain sea. N[orth].
1798 A. Thomson Lett. Traveller xv. 153
The Rhine, that noble river which rises in the country of the Grisons, in Switzerland, and running northward, and towards the west, discharges itself by different channels into the German sea.
German sheet glass
n. (also German sheet) now chiefly hist. probably: a type of window glass made from German potash glass.
1777 N. Brit. Intelligencer 21 May 243/1
A duty of 7s. per cwt. on all materials or metal used in making spread glass, 14s. ditto for all materials, &c. used in making all other sort of window glass, and on German sheet glass.
German steel
n. now hist. steel of a type made (originally or principally) in Germany;esp. (a) steel made directly from siderite; (b) steel made from wrought iron by cementation.
1744 C. Carroll Invoice 16 Feb. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1926) 21 244, 3
ffaggotts German or Square steel.
1798 Jrnl. Nat. Philos. May 65
The steel obtained immediately from the ore by simple fusion, is called natural steel. It is likewise distinguished by the name of German steel, because it comes principally from Germany.
German text
n. (a) an elaborate script, derived from German examples but employed in English documents for its ornamental value; (b) (not in technical use) = Fraktur n.
1658 E. Cocker Pen's Triumph (new ed.) 3,
I have sometimes wrote the German Text with a great Pen having two slits.
1763 W. Massey Origin & Progress Lett. ii. 28
A neat and correct alphabet of the german text capitals.
German vitriol
n. [after post-classical Latin vitriolum Germanicum (1558 or earlier)] now hist. a mixture of iron and copper sulphates; (also) †concentrated sulphuric acid (obs.).
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health iii. f.193,
The learned Fallopio, and singuler practisioner Leonard Fiorauant, doe rather commend and preferre the Romaine, then the Germaine Vitriol [L. Fallop. Rom. Germanico præfert].
1686 W. Harris tr. N. Lémery Course Chym. (ed. 2) i. xviii. 343
Putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried,..I distilled first of all the Phlegm.
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica 139
They have mistaken for it the common blue green German Vitriol which contains Iron and Copper mixed.
German watch
n. hist. an early watch, esp. of the 16th- or 17th-cent., with an elaborate case; cf. German clock n.
1611 T. Middleton & T. Dekker Roaring Girle sig. Hv,
Here take my Germane watch, hang't vp in sight, That I may see her hang in English for't.
1784 H. Walpole Descr. Villa Strawberry-Hill (new ed.) 62
An ancient square German watch, curiously chased in silver gilt.
S3. In the names of plants.
German iris
n. any of numerous cultivated varieties of bearded iris (now usu. thought to be of hybrid origin, but sometimes regarded as a distinct species, Iris germanica). [After French iris d'Allemagne (1706 in the passage translated in quot. 1706) and its apparent model post-classical Latin iris germanica (1549 or earlier).]
1706 G. London & H. Wise Retir'd Gard'ner II. iv. 416
The German Iris [Fr. l'Iris d'Allemagne], White .
German knotgrass
n. [compare post-classical Latin polygonum germanicum (1670 in Ray (compare quot. 1670), or earlier)] now rare knawel, Scleranthus annuus, a creeping plant with pairs of small pointed leaves and inconspicuous green flowers, native to Eurasia and North Africa but common as a weed in many temperate areas.
1670 J. Ray Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ 248
Polygonum Germanicum, vel Knawell Germanorum..German Knot-grass, or Knawell.
1710 W. Salmon Botanologia I. 591
Our Moderns call it Polygonum Germanicum, and we in English Knawel, or German knotgrass.
German madwort
n. †(a) a labiate plant with narrow, toothed leaves and purple flowers (perh. a member of the genus Sideritis) (obs. rare); (b) = madwort n. 3 (nowrare). [With sense (a), compare post-classical Latin alyssum germanicum (1597 in the same source as quot. 1597, or earlier)] .
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 379
The Germaine Madwoort bringeth foorth from a fibrous roote, two broad, rough, and hoarie leaues.
1670 J. Ray Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ 19
Alysson Germanicum echoides..Small wild Bugloss, great Goose-grass, German Madwort.
1701 R. Morden New Descr. & State of Eng. 76
Here are many excellent plants which grow, and in Cambridgeshire, as..German-Madwort, Water-Pimpernel, [etc.].
German tamarisk now rare and chiefly hist. a European shrub closely related to the tamarisks (genus Tamarix), Myricaria germanica (family Tamaricaceae), having glaucous leaves, upright branches, and pale pink flowers. [After post-classical Latin tamarix germanica (1618 or earlier); compare French tamarisc d'Allemagne (apparently a1708 (published posthumously in 1717) in the passage translated in quot. 1708).]
[1708 tr. J. P. de Tournefort Materia Medica ii. ix. 106
The German Shrub-Tamarisk has Roots about the Bigness of a Man's Leg cover'd with a thick Bark.]
1714 Philos. Trans 1713 (Royal Soc.) 28 56
German Tamarisk... This differs from the French in having thicker greyish Leaves and spiked Flowers, which turn into a white Down.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attrib. and objective, with the sense ‘that teaches or studies German, relating to the teaching or study of German’, as German class, German master, German scholar,German student, German teacher, etc. Cf. sense A. 2d.In quot. 1748 in the context of Germany, so perh. simply ‘a master who is German’.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 5 Sept. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1206
You will also desire your German master to teach you [etc.].
1790 W. Coxe Trav. Poland, Russia, Sweden & Denmark III. xi. x. 221
This academy is provided with professors of history, mathematics, rhetoric, and natural history; with a German master, and a drawing master.
b. Objective.
C2.
a.
German-Jewish
adj. [compare German deutsch-jüdisch (1709 or earlier)]
1787 European Mag. Oct. 320/1
The German Jewish nation went the day before yesterday, at five o'clock in the afternoon, to the Synagogue.
German-Swiss
adj. and n. (cf. Swiss-German at Swiss adj. a).
1736 S.-Carolina Gaz. 25 Sept. 2/2
A great Number of German Swiss People just arrived in the Ship Eagle.
1741 W. Stephens Jrnl. 10 Dec. (1958) I. 15
The Saltzburghers with their Effects, having been first brought a Shore, the next after them were the German Swiss.
1764 J. Boswell Jrnl. 25 Nov. in Boswell on Grand Tour (1953) I. 199,
I found him a German-Swiss literatus, full of animal spirits.
German-American
(a) n. an American of German ancestry; (b) adj. of or relating to German-Americans.
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 423
The weight of the oar lies on the women, as is the case with the German Americans.
C3. Preceding and in apposition to the names of other languages (as German–English,German–French, German–Italian, etc.), esp. in the titles of dictionaries in which German words are followed by their translations in the other language.
1796 N. Bailey (title)
Dictionary English-German and German-English.
The above citations in chronological order. Secondary sources in red.
eOE Swylce eac bi suðan sæ in Germania & eac somod þa dælas Hibernia Scotta ealondes se hlisa his [sc. St Oswald's] wundra bicwoom [L. Germaniae simul et Hiberniae partes attigit].
eOE Æfter þæm Germanie gesohton Agustus ungeniedde him to friþe.
eOE Ærest Germanie [L. Germani] þe be Donua wæron forhergedon Italiam oþ Rafennan þa burg.
OE Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie [L. de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus], þæt of Seaxum & of Angle & of Geatum.
1325c (▸c1300) Þer come out of germaynie [?a1425 Digby germayne, c1425 Harl. germanie]..ssipes eiȝtetene.
1387▸a (1874) (MED), Þe bataile þat he dede aȝenst the Germayns [L. Germanos], Sclaves, and Sarmates.
1387▸a (1876) (MED), Þe empere passede from þe Grees to þe Frenschemen and to þe Germans, þat beeþ Almayns ...
1387a (1876) [Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious] made [his son] Lowys the second regne in Germania [L. in Germania].
1398a (1975) Þis londe [sc. Almania] hatte Germania also [L.Alemannia..etiam germania dicta est].
1439?a Cesar..Passyng the Alpies, rood thoruh Germanye.
1445 (1905) ... þat hath now vndirputte Vnto my power tho germaynes proude and frensh men [L. Germanos..Francosque]?
1464a The thirde mad he Kyng to the Bavaris and the Germanes.
1530 When the empyre was translated vnto the Germaynes..there was moch stryfe.
1531 ...than to be arayed after the ruffyan inuencyon of many gospellers in Germany.
1536 Amonge the laten songes be mixed here & there Germane songes [Ger. teutsch Gesänge], which be added ...
1542? O noble Germanys, god hath made yow a lyght vnto all rulers in the world.
1548 This people had suche displeasure at the vnhonest fashions of the Germain women, that they made a law that the Females...
1550 It rayned corne out of the element ...t .vi. Germayn myles, and in breedth halfe a Germayne myle in some places.
1550 This Germaine empire shal decay & faile.
1550 Of the Germanes [Ger. von Deudschen]. In the tyme of Augustus were the Germanes first attempted of the Romanes ...
1552 German or of germanye, Germanus.
1565 George Gienger... the German tongue [L. Germanici sermonis]....reade in the German tongue [L. Germanicè]...
1573 Beyonde Scotlande, in the Germane Oceane [L. in Oceano Germanico]: are the Ilandes called Orchades...
1576 The learned Fallopio, ... then the Germaine Vitriol [L. Fallop. Rom. Germanico præfert].
1577 Waxing more fertile on that part whiche stretcheth toward ye Germaine sea, it yeeldeth it self to culture...
1581 The Germaine or French gentlewymen.
1594 The old Testament hath bin translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and into..., German [Fr. Allemand],...
1594 Italian miles doe make but one Germaine mile.
1597 The Germaine Madwoort bringeth foorth from a fibrous roote, two broad, rough, and hoarie leaues.
1598 A woman that is like a Iermane Cloake [sc. clock], Still a repairing: euer out of frame.
1602 He [sc. Luther] concludeth with these German words Got helf myr, Amen.
1603 Partly by malice and emulation of them, that favoured the German Empire against the Pope.
1606 (1931), I thinke it, being a Jarman doctors wourke.., will in some matters delight and instruct.
1607 They haue seene a four-footed beast called in Latine Simivulpa, in GreekAlopecopithecos, & in German Fuchssaff.
1610 They that nominated themselves after their owne language Teutsch,... by the Romanes were named Germans [L. Germani]...
1611 Here take my Germane watch, hang't vp in sight, That I may see her hang in English for't.
1616 She takes her selfe asunder still when she goes to bed... like a great Germane clocke.
1616a (1623)They..set spurres, and away; like three Germane-diuels, three Doctor Faustasses.
1618 Owles Almanacke 7 The German Fencer cudgell'd most of our English Fencers now about a moneth past.
1635 J. von Langeren in Direct. for Eng. Traviller f. 29, Northfolke... Germain sea. N[orth].
1643a (1651) i. v. B iij, Let us try To win that old Eremit thing, that, like An Image in a German clock, doth move, Not walke.
1658 E. Cocker Pen's Triumph (new ed.) 3, I have sometimes wrote the German Text with a great Pen having two slits.
1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia ii. 26 That burning the dead was..the old Germane practise, is also asserted by Tacitus.
1661a T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Essex 317 Essex hath..the German Ocean on the East.
1663 The German Bezoar stones are taken out of the Bellies of some Does that haunt the Alpes.
1670 That small Engine, which by some is cal'd the German-devil, reform'd, after this manner, and duely applied...
1670 Alysson Germanicum echoides..Small wild Bugloss, great Goose-grass, German Madwort.
1670 Polygonum Germanicum, vel Knawell Germanorum..German Knot-grass, or Knawell.
1671 (1950) Mr. John Alexander Polonian craveing libertie to sett up ane schooll for learning the German and Polonian tongues.
1676 J. Cooke Mellificium Chirurg. (ed. 3) 445 [Some instruments are] Of Horn, as Cups used at Germain-Baths.
1683 For the grubbing up of Stumps of Oak, there is an Engine call'd the German Devil.
1686 Putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried,..I distilled first of all the Phlegm.
1688 These Homilies..were to be turned by the Bishops either into Rustick Roman, or German, as served best...
1691 Neither among the old Germans did any one bear Arms until he was honored with a Spear and Target in their...
1701 Here are many excellent plants which grow, and in Cambridgeshire, as..German-Madwort, Water-Pimpernel, [etc.].
1705 They are as Impertinent and Noisie as the..German Jews at their Synagogue at Amsterdam.
1706 G. London & H. Wise Retir'd Gard'ner II. iv. 416 The German Iris [Fr. l'Iris d'Allemagne], White .
1708 The German Shrub-Tamarisk has Roots about the Bigness of a Man's Leg cover'd with a thick Bark.]
1710 Our Moderns call it Polygonum Germanicum, and we in English Knawel, or German knotgrass.
1712 (1822) For and upon all Paper usually called or knowne by the Name of German Lombard which shall be imported ...
1712 They grind this Brass over and over again.... which they sell under the Name of German Gold in Powder.
1714 German Tamarisk... This differs from the French in having thicker greyish Leaves and spiked Flowers...
1718 Solos for a German flute a hoboy or violin, with a thorough bass for the harpsicord or bass violin.
1723 The Germans speaking of Chymical Operations, and mentioning Fire, often mean Digestion, which is performed by Fire.
1723 The Latin Translator has in this Passage taken the German (for the word destroy) quite wrong.
1724 C. Morris Diary 22 May (1934) 108 Mr Broad got Mr Grano to Entertain me with his Trumpet, German-Flute, & Small Flute.
1728 Teutonic, something belonging to the Teutones, an ancient People of Germany, inhabiting... the Coasts of the German Ocean.
1728 King of the Romans, in our Age, is a Prince elected, and design'd Successor to the German Empire.
1736 S.-Carolina Gaz. 25 Sept. 2/2 A great Number of German Swiss People just arrived in the Ship Eagle.
1741 (1958) The Saltzburghers with their Effects, having been first brought a Shore, the next after them were the German Swiss.
1744 C. Carroll Invoice 16 Feb. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1926) 21 244, 3 ffaggotts German or Square steel.
1748 (1932) (modernized text) I desire that you will not fail to write a German letter, in the German character...
1748 (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099 A sure way of keeping up your German, after you leave Germany.
1748 (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099, I am very willing that you should take a Saxon servant, who speaks nothing but German.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 5 Sept. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1206 You will also desire your German master to teach you [etc.].
1750 Brief Hist. Episcopal Church of Moravian Brethren 21 Consigning the privileges to the German-born brethren.
1750 A gallant Sailor ev'ry Inch, High up the Gulph unlading his rich Freight, In the P——a, German built, a fine First-rate.
1751 They have mistaken for it the common blue green German Vitriol which contains Iron and Copper mixed.
1751 The German Bezoar is a Substance so far indeed of the Nature of the other Bezoars, that it is found in the Stomach ...
1754 (end), Upon the same shelf with their German flute, their powder-mask and their four-horse-whip.
1755 Of words undoubtedly Teutonick the original is not always to be found... I have therefore inserted ... German substitutes.
1761 (1785) Some country people were forced to work a long time ..., before they could make a way for the German built coach...
1763 W. Massey Origin & Progress Lett. ii. 28 A neat and correct alphabet of the german text capitals.
1764 J. Boswell Jrnl. 25 Nov. in Boswell on Grand Tour (1953) I. 199, I found him a German-Swiss literatus, full of animal spirits.
1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds 278 Circassian..M[armot] with ears like those of mice:..size of the German marmot.
1773 C. Mason Lady's Assistant 339 (heading) German sausages.
1774 A worthy Man, qualified to teach English and German, was not to be found among his People.
1774 The concretion sometimes found in the stomach of this animal [sc. the chamois], called the German bezoar.
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 423 The weight of the oar lies on the women, as is the case with the German Americans.
1776 Gibbon Decline & Fall I. 222 The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters.
1777 A duty of 7s. per cwt. on all materials or metal used in making spread glass, ... and on German sheet glass.
1781 Two German Flutes with silver keys, & hooped with ivory, one of a dark brown, the other a pale yellow colour.
1781 Gibbon Decline & Fall III. 245 The Germans were less corrupt than the Italians.
1784 H. Walpole Descr. Villa Strawberry-Hill (new ed.) 62 An ancient square German watch, curiously chased in silver gilt.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue German duck, half a sheep's head boiled with onions.
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxiii, in Poems 18 Then bowses drumlie German-water, To mak himsel look fair and fatter.
1786 The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel conforms exactly to the views ... and has acceded to the German Confederation.
1787 The German Jewish nation went the day before yesterday, at five o'clock in the afternoon, to the Synagogue.
1787 Mr. Calver ... more German than American [Fr. plus allemand qu'américain],..led us to see the saw-mill.
1789 Strabo shews the Belgic manners to have been quite German... the Germans ..., as being Germani, or brothers German...
1789 Tables of Net Duties Payable at Paper, Lombard, viz German Lombard, the ream.
1790 The ingredients [of the pottage] are a green goard sliced..., with other herbs of various kinds, a German sausage.
1790 This academy is provided with professors of history, mathematics, rhetoric, and natural history; with a German master...
1793 Allow a German mile to be two thousand Rhineland rods in length; the square of that mile contains four millions.
1795 The same pitiful trifles constantly returned, like the exact repetition of the movements in an old German clock.
1796 Daily Advertiser 4 June 2/2 A black Gelding, about 15 Hands and a Half high, German bred.
1796 N. Bailey (title) Dictionary English-German and German-English.
1798 The Rhine... discharges itself by different channels into the German sea.
1798 The steel obtained immediately from the ore by simple fusion....German steel, because it comes principally from Germany.
1798 (1882) 249 See how natural the German comes from me, though I have not yet been six weeks in the country!
1800 For the education of boys, a man is usually sought out who can teach french and german, ...and natural philosophy.
1800 W. Whiter Etymologicon Magnum I. 163 Hammel is the German for a Sheep.
eOE Swylce eac bi suðan sæ in Germania & eac somod þa dælas Hibernia Scotta ealondes se hlisa his [sc. St Oswald's] wundra bicwoom [L. Germaniae simul et Hiberniae partes attigit].
eOE Æfter þæm Germanie gesohton Agustus ungeniedde him to friþe.
eOE Ærest Germanie [L. Germani] þe be Donua wæron forhergedon Italiam oþ Rafennan þa burg.
OE Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie [L. de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus], þæt of Seaxum & of Angle & of Geatum.
1325c (▸c1300) Þer come out of germaynie [?a1425 Digby germayne, c1425 Harl. germanie]..ssipes eiȝtetene.
1387▸a (1874) (MED), Þe bataile þat he dede aȝenst the Germayns [L. Germanos], Sclaves, and Sarmates.
1387▸a (1876) (MED), Þe empere passede from þe Grees to þe Frenschemen and to þe Germans, þat beeþ Almayns ...
1387a (1876) [Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious] made [his son] Lowys the second regne in Germania [L. in Germania].
1398a (1975) Þis londe [sc. Almania] hatte Germania also [L.Alemannia..etiam germania dicta est].
1439?a Cesar..Passyng the Alpies, rood thoruh Germanye.
1445 (1905) ... þat hath now vndirputte Vnto my power tho germaynes proude and frensh men [L. Germanos..Francosque]?
1464a The thirde mad he Kyng to the Bavaris and the Germanes.
1530 When the empyre was translated vnto the Germaynes..there was moch stryfe.
1531 ...than to be arayed after the ruffyan inuencyon of many gospellers in Germany.
1536 Amonge the laten songes be mixed here & there Germane songes [Ger. teutsch Gesänge], which be added ...
1542? O noble Germanys, god hath made yow a lyght vnto all rulers in the world.
1548 This people had suche displeasure at the vnhonest fashions of the Germain women, that they made a law that the Females...
1550 It rayned corne out of the element ...t .vi. Germayn myles, and in breedth halfe a Germayne myle in some places.
1550 This Germaine empire shal decay & faile.
1550 Of the Germanes [Ger. von Deudschen]. In the tyme of Augustus were the Germanes first attempted of the Romanes ...
1552 German or of germanye, Germanus.
1565 George Gienger... the German tongue [L. Germanici sermonis]....reade in the German tongue [L. Germanicè]...
1573 Beyonde Scotlande, in the Germane Oceane [L. in Oceano Germanico]: are the Ilandes called Orchades...
1576 The learned Fallopio, ... then the Germaine Vitriol [L. Fallop. Rom. Germanico præfert].
1577 Waxing more fertile on that part whiche stretcheth toward ye Germaine sea, it yeeldeth it self to culture...
1581 The Germaine or French gentlewymen.
1594 The old Testament hath bin translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and into..., German [Fr. Allemand],...
1594 Italian miles doe make but one Germaine mile.
1597 The Germaine Madwoort bringeth foorth from a fibrous roote, two broad, rough, and hoarie leaues.
1598 A woman that is like a Iermane Cloake [sc. clock], Still a repairing: euer out of frame.
1602 He [sc. Luther] concludeth with these German words Got helf myr, Amen.
1603 Partly by malice and emulation of them, that favoured the German Empire against the Pope.
1606 (1931), I thinke it, being a Jarman doctors wourke.., will in some matters delight and instruct.
1607 They haue seene a four-footed beast called in Latine Simivulpa, in GreekAlopecopithecos, & in German Fuchssaff.
1610 They that nominated themselves after their owne language Teutsch,... by the Romanes were named Germans [L. Germani]...
1611 Here take my Germane watch, hang't vp in sight, That I may see her hang in English for't.
1616 She takes her selfe asunder still when she goes to bed... like a great Germane clocke.
1616a (1623)They..set spurres, and away; like three Germane-diuels, three Doctor Faustasses.
1618 Owles Almanacke 7 The German Fencer cudgell'd most of our English Fencers now about a moneth past.
1635 J. von Langeren in Direct. for Eng. Traviller f. 29, Northfolke... Germain sea. N[orth].
1643a (1651) i. v. B iij, Let us try To win that old Eremit thing, that, like An Image in a German clock, doth move, Not walke.
1658 E. Cocker Pen's Triumph (new ed.) 3, I have sometimes wrote the German Text with a great Pen having two slits.
1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia ii. 26 That burning the dead was..the old Germane practise, is also asserted by Tacitus.
1661a T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Essex 317 Essex hath..the German Ocean on the East.
1663 The German Bezoar stones are taken out of the Bellies of some Does that haunt the Alpes.
1670 That small Engine, which by some is cal'd the German-devil, reform'd, after this manner, and duely applied...
1670 Alysson Germanicum echoides..Small wild Bugloss, great Goose-grass, German Madwort.
1670 Polygonum Germanicum, vel Knawell Germanorum..German Knot-grass, or Knawell.
1671 (1950) Mr. John Alexander Polonian craveing libertie to sett up ane schooll for learning the German and Polonian tongues.
1676 J. Cooke Mellificium Chirurg. (ed. 3) 445 [Some instruments are] Of Horn, as Cups used at Germain-Baths.
1683 For the grubbing up of Stumps of Oak, there is an Engine call'd the German Devil.
1686 Putting into my Furnace a Retort whose two thirds were filled with German Vitriol dried,..I distilled first of all the Phlegm.
1688 These Homilies..were to be turned by the Bishops either into Rustick Roman, or German, as served best...
1691 Neither among the old Germans did any one bear Arms until he was honored with a Spear and Target in their...
1701 Here are many excellent plants which grow, and in Cambridgeshire, as..German-Madwort, Water-Pimpernel, [etc.].
1705 They are as Impertinent and Noisie as the..German Jews at their Synagogue at Amsterdam.
1706 G. London & H. Wise Retir'd Gard'ner II. iv. 416 The German Iris [Fr. l'Iris d'Allemagne], White .
1708 The German Shrub-Tamarisk has Roots about the Bigness of a Man's Leg cover'd with a thick Bark.]
1710 Our Moderns call it Polygonum Germanicum, and we in English Knawel, or German knotgrass.
1712 (1822) For and upon all Paper usually called or knowne by the Name of German Lombard which shall be imported ...
1712 They grind this Brass over and over again.... which they sell under the Name of German Gold in Powder.
1714 German Tamarisk... This differs from the French in having thicker greyish Leaves and spiked Flowers...
1718 Solos for a German flute a hoboy or violin, with a thorough bass for the harpsicord or bass violin.
1723 The Germans speaking of Chymical Operations, and mentioning Fire, often mean Digestion, which is performed by Fire.
1723 The Latin Translator has in this Passage taken the German (for the word destroy) quite wrong.
1724 C. Morris Diary 22 May (1934) 108 Mr Broad got Mr Grano to Entertain me with his Trumpet, German-Flute, & Small Flute.
1728 Teutonic, something belonging to the Teutones, an ancient People of Germany, inhabiting... the Coasts of the German Ocean.
1728 King of the Romans, in our Age, is a Prince elected, and design'd Successor to the German Empire.
1736 S.-Carolina Gaz. 25 Sept. 2/2 A great Number of German Swiss People just arrived in the Ship Eagle.
1741 (1958) The Saltzburghers with their Effects, having been first brought a Shore, the next after them were the German Swiss.
1744 C. Carroll Invoice 16 Feb. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1926) 21 244, 3 ffaggotts German or Square steel.
1748 (1932) (modernized text) I desire that you will not fail to write a German letter, in the German character...
1748 (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099 A sure way of keeping up your German, after you leave Germany.
1748 (1932) (modernized text) III. 1099, I am very willing that you should take a Saxon servant, who speaks nothing but German.
1748 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 5 Sept. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1206 You will also desire your German master to teach you [etc.].
1750 Brief Hist. Episcopal Church of Moravian Brethren 21 Consigning the privileges to the German-born brethren.
1750 A gallant Sailor ev'ry Inch, High up the Gulph unlading his rich Freight, In the P——a, German built, a fine First-rate.
1751 They have mistaken for it the common blue green German Vitriol which contains Iron and Copper mixed.
1751 The German Bezoar is a Substance so far indeed of the Nature of the other Bezoars, that it is found in the Stomach ...
1754 (end), Upon the same shelf with their German flute, their powder-mask and their four-horse-whip.
1755 Of words undoubtedly Teutonick the original is not always to be found... I have therefore inserted ... German substitutes.
1761 (1785) Some country people were forced to work a long time ..., before they could make a way for the German built coach...
1763 W. Massey Origin & Progress Lett. ii. 28 A neat and correct alphabet of the german text capitals.
1764 J. Boswell Jrnl. 25 Nov. in Boswell on Grand Tour (1953) I. 199, I found him a German-Swiss literatus, full of animal spirits.
1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds 278 Circassian..M[armot] with ears like those of mice:..size of the German marmot.
1773 C. Mason Lady's Assistant 339 (heading) German sausages.
1774 A worthy Man, qualified to teach English and German, was not to be found among his People.
1774 The concretion sometimes found in the stomach of this animal [sc. the chamois], called the German bezoar.
1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 423 The weight of the oar lies on the women, as is the case with the German Americans.
1776 Gibbon Decline & Fall I. 222 The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters.
1777 A duty of 7s. per cwt. on all materials or metal used in making spread glass, ... and on German sheet glass.
1781 Two German Flutes with silver keys, & hooped with ivory, one of a dark brown, the other a pale yellow colour.
1781 Gibbon Decline & Fall III. 245 The Germans were less corrupt than the Italians.
1784 H. Walpole Descr. Villa Strawberry-Hill (new ed.) 62 An ancient square German watch, curiously chased in silver gilt.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue German duck, half a sheep's head boiled with onions.
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs xxiii, in Poems 18 Then bowses drumlie German-water, To mak himsel look fair and fatter.
1786 The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel conforms exactly to the views ... and has acceded to the German Confederation.
1787 The German Jewish nation went the day before yesterday, at five o'clock in the afternoon, to the Synagogue.
1787 Mr. Calver ... more German than American [Fr. plus allemand qu'américain],..led us to see the saw-mill.
1789 Strabo shews the Belgic manners to have been quite German... the Germans ..., as being Germani, or brothers German...
1789 Tables of Net Duties Payable at Paper, Lombard, viz German Lombard, the ream.
1790 The ingredients [of the pottage] are a green goard sliced..., with other herbs of various kinds, a German sausage.
1790 This academy is provided with professors of history, mathematics, rhetoric, and natural history; with a German master...
1793 Allow a German mile to be two thousand Rhineland rods in length; the square of that mile contains four millions.
1795 The same pitiful trifles constantly returned, like the exact repetition of the movements in an old German clock.
1796 Daily Advertiser 4 June 2/2 A black Gelding, about 15 Hands and a Half high, German bred.
1796 N. Bailey (title) Dictionary English-German and German-English.
1798 The Rhine... discharges itself by different channels into the German sea.
1798 The steel obtained immediately from the ore by simple fusion....German steel, because it comes principally from Germany.
1798 (1882) 249 See how natural the German comes from me, though I have not yet been six weeks in the country!
1800 For the education of boys, a man is usually sought out who can teach french and german, ...and natural philosophy.
1800 W. Whiter Etymologicon Magnum I. 163 Hammel is the German for a Sheep.