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Sorry, Deutsch people (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 225 points 4 weeks ago (26 children)

For anyone wondering, Deutschland, Duitsland and Tyskland all have the same latin root "theodiscus" that became "deutsch". "Allemagne" derives from a germanic tribe, the "Alemanni" who lived in modern day Germany and bordered modern day france. Niemcy and Nemetorszag both stem from old slavic "nem" (or something similar) meaning "mute". They called the Germanic tribes they interacted with mute because they couldn't understand them. "Saksa" is derived from the German region "Saxony".

Please correct me in case i got something wrong.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Any idea about how English came to call it Germany?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Latin, Germania

[–] Mouselemming 5 points 4 weeks ago

Okay then, where'd Rome come up with it? Oh, "the land of the Germani," but scholars are divided on the origin of Germani. Possibly from Celt gair, "neighbor." Or maybe from a few other sources.

The word germ also comes from Latin, "sprout" but I'm not seeing anything like "people who sprout" or "from the land of sprouting seeds" or anything else to connect them at all. It's more like ger+man.

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