What Does Teutonic Mean?

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What Does Teutonic Mean?

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Answer 1

The word Teutonic means Germanic. It is a term used to describe Germanic tribes, people or languages. The word originates from the Latin name for a tribe whom the Romans believed to be of Germanic ancestry. They were called as Teutone and the term Teutonic originated from this word. The Romans not only considered them as of Germanic origin they also started using this term as a synonym for Germanic or Germanicus.

Today many are of the opinion that the teutones or the Teutonic people were not Germanic at all and on the other hand they were a Celtic tribe because the word teutone also meant "the people" in the Celtic language. But the Germans already used this term for Germanic by the 900 and later on the term tiutisch was modified into teutonic. William Z. Ripley used this term to describe and designate one of the three European races known as the Nordic races.

Answer 2

Teutonic is a term related to the Teutons. Tetons is a word for Germans or people belonging to the Germanic race. Teutonic is the adjective form of teutons. There are several words starting with this term such as Teutonic languages and Teutonic order. Thus Teutonic literally means Germanic when translated into English. It may refer to many things such as the Germanic people, Germanic languages or a famous German military order known as the Teutonic Knights.

This word originated from a Latin term which was used as a name for a tribe. This tribe was considered as Germanic by the Romans and was called as the Teutone which originated from another Germanic word tiutisch. Since then Teutonic is a term for anything Germanic. But recently an idea was put forward according to which the Teutones were not Germanic but Celtic in origin. But yet the origins of this word can be traced back to two words Teutone and tiutisch which later merged to become a single word Teutonic.