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Germanic

Syllabification: (Ger·man·ic)
Pronunciation: /jərˈmanik/

Translate Germanic | into German | into Italian
Definition of Germanic

adjective

  • 1of, relating to, or denoting the branch of the Indo-European language family that includes English, German, Dutch, Frisian, the Scandinavian languages, and Gothic.
  • of, relating to, or denoting the peoples of ancient northern and western Europe speaking Germanic languages.
  • 2having characteristics of or attributed to Germans or Germany:she had an almost Germanic regard for order

noun

  • the Germanic languages collectively. See also East Germanic, North Germanic, West Germanic.
  • the unrecorded ancient language from which the Germanic languages developed, thought to have been spoken on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the 3rd millennium BC. Also called Proto-Germanic.

Origin:

mid 17th century: from Latin Germanicus, from Germanus (see German)

Germanic in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of Germanic in the British & World English dictionary