: Just incidentally, did you realize that all three terms
: we usually use for Germanic peoples (german, teutonic,
: gothic) are NOT derived at ALL from german? Isn't that
: weird?
With the exception of the word gothic, which I will return to in a moment, this is because, like many English words, we derive the words german and teutonic from their Latin roots. Germanus in Latin meant having the same parents. And through some leap of Roman logic this became Germania, the lands north of Italy and east of Gaul that were not under Rome's control. Teutoni referred to those people who specifically lived in the areas of modern Germany and Austria. Both of these terms entered English through Middle French and the conquering of England by the Normans.
Gothic peoples, or Gothi in Late Latin, refers to those people from Gotland, or modern northern Germany and Scandinavia. While it has a Latin base, the term actually comes from the Gothic people's name for themselves. And the term probably entered Old English as Gotan or Gotes and became Goth sometime after the Norman Conquest.
-Phil.
