1605, "of or pertaining to the Germanic languages and to peoples or tribes who speak or spoke them," from L.
Teutonicus, from
Teutones, name of a tribe that inhabited coastal Germany and devastated Gaul 113-101 B.C.E., probably from a P.Gmc. word related to O.H.G.
diot "people" (see
Dutch), from
*teuta, the common PIE word for "people" (cf. Lith.
tauto, Osc.
touto, O.Ir.
tuath, Goth.
þiuda, O.E.
þeod). Used in Eng. in anthropology to avoid the modern political association of
German; but in this anthropoligical sense Fr. uses
germanique and Ger. uses
germanisch, since neither uses its form of
German for the narrower national meaning (cf. Fr.
allemand, see
Alemanni; and Ger.
deutsch). The
Teutonic Knights (founded c.1191) were a military order of Ger. knights formed for service in the Holy Land, later crusading in Prussia and Lithuania. The
Teutonic cross (1882) was the badge of the order.
Teuton "a German" is attested from 1833.