A Latin name — possibly Celtic for 'neighbor' — that Caesar applied to peoples beyond the Rhine.
A native or inhabitant of Germany; the West Germanic language spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland. As an adjective, relating to Germany, its people, or their language.
From Latin 'Germānus,' the Roman name for the peoples east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, first attested in Julius Caesar's 'Commentarii de Bello Gallico' (50s BCE). The etymology of 'Germānus' is disputed. The leading theories include: (1) from a Celtic word meaning 'neighbor' or 'people of the forest' (cf. Old Irish 'gair,' 'neighbor'); (2) from a Celtic root *germ- meaning 'noisy' (cf. Old Irish 'garim,' 'I shout'); (3) from a Germanic self-designation meaning 'spear-man' (cf. Old High German 'gēr,' 'spear'). Modern scholarship slightly favors a Celtic origin, since it was the Gauls who first used the term and the Romans adopted it from them.
Germans do not call themselves 'Germans.' Their self-designation is 'Deutsch' (from Proto-Germanic *þeudiskaz, meaning 'of the people'). Almost every neighboring nation has a different name for Germany: the French say 'Allemagne' (from the Alemanni tribe), Finns say 'Saksa' (from the Saxons), Poles say 'Niemcy' (from a Slavic word meaning 'mute ones' — people who don't speak our language), and the Italians say 'Germania.' Germany may be the most renamed country in the world.