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Germany

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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EnglishWikipedia has articles on:
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Cities and states of Germany

Etymology

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FromMiddle EnglishGermanie, fromOld EnglishGermanie &Germania, fromLatinGermānia(“land of the Germans”), fromGermānī, a people living around and east of theRhine first attested in the1st centuryB.C.E. works ofJulius Caesar and of uncertain etymology. Theexonym was said byStrabo to derive fromgermānus(“close kin; genuine”), making it cognate withgermane andgerman, but this seems unsupported. Attempts to derive it from Germanic or Celtic roots since the 18th century[1] are all problematic,[2] although it is perhaps cognate with theOld Irishgair(“neighbour”).[3]Doublet ofGermania.

In reference to a medieval kingdom, EnglishGermany is usually an anachronism using the Roman name to describe the area orcalquing variousLatin terms likerexTeutonicorum ("king of theTeutons"), which were often derogatory exonyms rather than formal titles.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

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Germany (countable anduncountable,pluralGermanysorGermanies)

  1. Anation orcivilizationoccupying thecountry around theRhine,Elbe, andupperDanubeRivers inCentral Europe,taken as awhole under itsvariousgovernments.
    • 1776,Edward Gibbon,The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire‎[1], volume I, page218:
      AncientGermany, excluding from its independent limits the provinceweſtward of the Rhine, which hadſubmitted to the Roman yoke, extendeditſelf over a third part of Europe.Almoſt the whole of modernGermany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland,Livonia,Pruſſia, and the greater part of Poland, were peopled by the various tribes of one great nation,whoſe complexion, manners, and language, denoted a common origin andpreſerved aſtrikingreſemblance.
    • 1872, John Fiske, editor,History of English Literature, abridgment ofHenri van Laun's translation ofHippolyte Taine'sHistoire de la littérature anglaise (1864), page26:
      While the Germans of Gaul, Italy, and Spain became Romans, the Saxons retained their language, their genius, and manners, and created in Britain aGermany outside ofGermany.
    • 1944,Ludwig von Mises,Omnipotent Government,page265:
      There have been inGermany, as in all other nations, eulogists of aggression, war, and conquest. But there have been other Germans too. The greatest are not to be found in the ranks of those glorifying tyranny and German world hegemony. AreHeinrich von Kleist,Richard Wagner, andDetlev von Liliencron more representative of the national character thanKant,Goethe,Schiller,Mozart, andBeethoven? The idea of a nation's character is obviously arbitrary. It is derived from a judgment which omits all unpleasant facts contradicting the preconceived dogma.
    1. (historical, now obsolete) The GermanSprachraum; the countries and territories within Europe where German is or was the primary language.
  2. Theprincipalstate inthiscountry,including
    1. (historical) Anominalmedievalkingdomformingpart of theCarolingian andHoly Roman Empires;(metonymically, now uncommon) theHoly Roman Empirein its entirety;(metonymically, obsolete) theAustrianHabsburgempirein its entirety.
      • 1759,A Military History of Germany; and of England. From the Year 1631 to the Year 1648. Being the Memoirs of an English Gentleman, who served in the army of Gustavus Adolphus; and afterwards in the Royal Army of King Charles I (1759)‎[2], page33:
        There had been a long bloody war in the empire ofGermany for twelve years, between the Emperor, the Duke ofBavaria, the King ofSpain, and thePopiſh Princes and Electors, on the one side; and theProteſtant Princes on the other; and bothſides having beenexhauſted by the war, and even theCatholicksthemſelves beginning todiſlike the growing power of thehouſe ofAuſtria, it was thought that all parties were willing to make peace.
      • 1775, Charles Burney,The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces‎[3], volume II, page 3:
        I had frequently been told, that theBohemians were themoſtmuſical people ofGermany, or, perhaps, of all Europe...
      • 1790, Thomas B. Clarke,A Statistical View of Germany, in respect to the Imperial and Territorial Constitutions, Forms of Government, Legislation, Administration of Justice, and Ecclesiastical State‎[4], page13:
        When the race of Charlemagneceaſed to govern inGermany, the princes andſtatesaſſociated to continue the empire; and that itsmajeſty might beviſible, and its laws enforced, they agreed tochooſe an emperor. From this emperor, all electors and princes, exceptthoſe before 1582, receiveinveſtiture of their dominions; counts and free cities from theAulic council. But thisinveſtiture is no more than aſign ofſubmiſſion to themajeſty of the empire, which isdepoſited in the emperor. For as theconſtituted members of the empire are dependent on that collective union from which they derive protection, they thereforeſhew this dependence on the emperor,becauſe herepreſents themajeſty of that union, or of the empire; but in all otherreſpects they are independent and free.
      • 1797, Colin MacFarquhar, George Gleig, editors,Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edition, A. Bell & C. MacFarquhar, "Mentz",page396:
        There are few cities inGermanybeſides Vienna which containſo rich and numerous a nobility as this does: there arefomehouſes here which haveeſtates of 100,000guilders, or 10,000l. a-year.
    2. (historical) Anempireformed byPrussia in1871 with itscapital atBerlin.
    3. (historical) Arepublicformed in1918 with itscapital atBerlin,inclusive of theNaziregime whocontrolled it after1933.
      • 1996, Paul Bookbinder,Weimar Germany: The Republic of the Reasonable,→ISBN, page90:
        Severing's belief that trade union workers were the most progressive and democratic element inGermany holds up well under investigation.
    4. (historical, uncommon) Thesocialistrepublicformed in1949 with itscapital atBerlin,moreoftenknown inEnglish asEast Germany.
    6. A country inCentral Europe, formed in1949 asWest Germany, with itsprovisionalcapitalBonn until1990,when itincorporatedEast Germany. Official name:Federal Republic of Germany. Capital and largest city:Berlin.
      • 2014 July 13, Sam Borden, “Germans End Long Wait: 24 Years and a Bit Extra”, inThe New York Times‎[5], archived fromthe original on13 July 2014:
        The win madeGermany the first European team to prevail in a World Cup in the Americas and gave the Germans, who have made it to the knockout stage in 16 consecutive World Cups, their first trophy since 1990.
      • 2014 September 25, Michael Heise, “The Myth of the Stupid German Investor”, inThe Wall Street Journal‎[6], archived fromthe original on7 January 2015:
        Germans save a lot, produce plenty and spend little. The result is a massive external surplus. Last year,Germany’s current account surplus stood at almost€200 billion ($260 billion), the world's largest.
  3. (countable, historical) Thevariousstates inthiscountryeither overtime or duringperiods ofdisunity anddivision,sometimes(inexact)inclusive of theHoly Roman Empire andAustria-Hungary'sotherholdings.
    • 2007, William Clark,Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University,→ISBN, page84:
      The differences between England and theGermanies sprang from the absence or presence of ministerial interventions.
    • 2010,Ilan Stavans,Gabriel García Márquez: The Early Years,→ISBN:
      In a Renault 14, they drove from oneGermany to the other.
    • 2010 September 29,Klaus Wiegrefe, “Germany's Unlikely Diplomatic Triumph: An Inside Look at the Reunification Negotiations”, inSpiegel Online‎[7], archived fromthe original on27 June 2012:
      It is the fall of 1989, and two time zones farther to the west, thousands of people march through downtown Leipzig every Monday, while more than 6,000 East German citizens are camped out in the embassies of WestGermany in Prague and Warsaw, hoping to be allowed to emigrate. The images have circled the globe, and it is clear to leaders Thatcher and Gorbachev that the twoGermanys are on the verge of radical change.
  4. (uncommon)A malegiven name.
  5. (uncommon)Asurname.
  6. Atownship inAdams County,Pennsylvania,United States.
  7. Anunincorporatedcommunity inClark County,Indiana,United States.
  8. Anunincorporatedcommunity inHouston County,Texas,United States.

Gallery

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Usage notes

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Presently,Germany usually refers toFederal Republic of Germany;[2] historical senses other than theGerman Empire,Weimar Germany, andNazi Germany are usually distinguished. Historically, the extent of "Germany" was a contentious issue known in the 19th century as "The German Question". The area more often described an ethnic region than a polity into the 16th century, withOld EnglishGermanie even occasionally being used to refer to the areas ofEngland held by theSaxons,Angles, etc.[2] As late as the 19th century, the political area considered "Germany" might include or exclude areas such asAustria,Königsberg,Switzerland, or even non-German parts of the Austrian Empire depending on the speaker and context. During the period of division between 1949 and 1990, eitherWest orEast Germany might be referenced as simply "Germany" depending on context, although English use typically referenced the West. See also the continuing use ofKorea to refer primarily toSouth Korea.

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

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Hyponyms

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Coordinate terms

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countries in Europe (appendix)edit

Derived terms

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Related terms

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Translations

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country in Central Europe

See also

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References

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  1. ^See, for example, the variety of derivations cited at "Germans" in the Rev. George William Lemon'sEnglish Etymology (1788).
  2. ↑2.02.12.2"German,adj. andn", in:Oxford English Dictionary,3rd ed.. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2012.
  3. ^"German", in:The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1996.
  4. ^Herman Kinder,Penguin Atlas of World History, Vol. I, 1988, p. 108.

Anagrams

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