germanic
germanic Lexical Profile
germanic Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Relating to the branch of the Indo-European language family that includes English, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages, or to the peoples who speak them.
"English has a Germanic grammatical structure combined with a vast Romance vocabulary."
Relating to or characteristic of the ancient tribes of northern and central Europe, or of modern Germany and its culture.
"The museum's new exhibit features weapons and jewelry from early Germanic settlements along the Rhine."
• noun
A major branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively across northern and western Europe, North America, and Oceania, comprising West Germanic (including English, German, and Dutch), North Germanic (the Scandinavian languages), and the extinct East Germanic (including Gothic); or the unattested prehistoric ancestor language (Proto-Germanic) from which they descended.
"Grimm's Law explains the systematic sound shifts that separated Germanic from other Indo-European languages."
Word Nuance & Usage
"Germanic" should not be confused with "German"; "German" refers specifically to the modern country of Germany and its language, whereas "Germanic" refers to the broader Indo-European language branch and historical ethnolinguistic group that includes English, Dutch, Swedish, and German.
• Rhymes for germanic
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Latin Germanicus ('of or belonging to the Germani'), derived from Germani, the name applied by Julius Caesar and Tacitus to the tribes inhabiting central and northern Europe east of the Rhine.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.