Teutonic

Teutonic or Teuton(s) may refer to

• A German military order, the Teutonic Knights.
• Germanic peoples (dated)
• Germanic languages (dated)

The word Teutonic derives both from the Latin name for a tribe of the late 2nd century BC, who were thought by the Romans to be Germanic, the Teutones, and from the OHG word diutisc (originally "associated with the people; vernacular"). The latter is the origin of the German word "Deutsch", the English word "Dutch" and other cognates, such as Italian "Tedesco" or Romansh "Tudestg".

While morphologically, the modern term "teutonic" is a direct derivation from "Teutones", its semantic components consist of an amalgam of notions traditionally associated with the Germanic peoples and the Germans.

Starting with the publication of Julius Caesar\'s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (ca. 50 BC), a report on the Gallic War supplemented with various ethnographic remarks, Latin scholars generally considered the Teutones as the epitome of a wandering Germanic tribe.BG 1.33.4; BG 1.40. In later years, Roman writers would sometimes use the term "Teutonicus" as a poetic pars pro toto synonym for their existing adjective "Germanicus". Both linguistically and ethnographically, however, neither the Teutonic ethnos nor the term from which their name was derived can be clearly identified as either Germanic or Celtic. Some modern scholars consider the Teutones to be more closely associated with the Celtic Helvetii than with Germanic groups, whilst the IE root *teutā ("people") is well attested in both the Germanic and the Celtic lexica.Birkhan, Kelten, 993.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teutonic

Around 900 Germans writing in Latin started to use the more learnèd "teutonicus" to replace the earlier "theodiscus", the latinised form of Germanic "diutisc" ("vernacular"). This fairly random equation of an ancient ethnonym with a contemporary term, based primarily on superficial assonance, was common practice in scholarly punditry during the Middle Ages, and not restricted to "teutonicus" - "diutisc" alone; other examples include the equation "Getae" - "Goths" popularised by Jordanes, or the even more adventurous "Dacia" - "Dania" (Denmark) found e.g. in French chronicles. Latin writers of the later Middle Ages tended to use "Teutonicus" as a translation for the vernacular "diutisc" (MHG "diutisch, tiutsch"), such as in the official title of the Teutonic Order (Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum - "Order of St. Mary\'s house of the Germans of Jerusalem").

The term was used by the economist William Z. Ripley to designate one of the three "races" of Europe, which later writers called the Nordic race. Due to similar racism-related abuses down to the first half of the 20th century, the term "teutonisch" has since fallen out of favour amongst German-speaking scholars, and is restricted to a somewhat ironical usage similar to the archaic "teutsch", if used at all. While the term is still present in English, which has retained it in some contexts as a translation of the traditional Latin "Teutonicus" (most notably the aforementioned Teutonic Order), it should not be translated into German as "teutonisch" except when referring to the historical "Teutones".

References and resources

Teutonic Listing in The Free Dictionary

Sources for the Word Teutonic

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia