TEUTONIC

'Teutonic' or 'Teuton(s)' means Germanic. It may refer to

★ Germanic peoples

★ Germanic languages

★ A famous German historical military order, the Teutonic Knights.
The word Teutonic derives at once from both the Latin name for a tribe who were thought by the Romans to be Germanic, ''' die Teutonen''' (wich means ''the Teutons), and from the Germanic word '''tiutisch''' (New High German ''deutsch'' = German), originally meaning ''belonging to the people''.
The Romans identified ''die Teutonen'' as a Germanic tribe, and therefore Roman writers began to use the term ''Teutonicus'' as a synonym for their existing word for Germanic peoples, ''Germanicus''.
Today many scholars think that ''die Teutonen'' were not a Germanic tribe at all, but were actually a Celtic tribe, and it has been suggested that ''Teutone'' derives from the Celtic word '''tuath''' meaning "the people" or "the tribe" (as in the mythical Irish race, the ''Tuatha de Danaan'', the "tribe of Danaan"). ^[1]
''Tiutisch'' is the source of the German word '''Deutsch''', as well as the English word "Dutch".
By 900 Germans writing in Latin used ''Teutonicus'', instead of the earlier '''Theodisca''', which was a Latin word form of the Germanic ''tiutisch'', which meant Germanic. It appears they thought it was an alternative form, of the same Germanic derivation, as ''Theodisca''. The words ''Teutone'' and ''tiutisch'' thus merged into one modern term, 'Teutonic'. The Italian form '''Tedesco''' derives from the older ''Theodisca''.
The term was used by the economist William Z. Ripley to designate one of the three "races" of Europe which by later writers was called the Nordic race.
This word was also incorporated into ''The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald as part of a phrase describing "The Great War" or in other words, World War I.

Contents

References and Resources

References and Resources

Teutonic Listing in The Free Dictionary
Sources for the Word Teutonic

1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teutonic