Germany
Meanings
- A nation or civilization occupying the country around the Rhine, Elbe, and upper Danube Rivers in Central Europe, taken as a whole under its various governments.
- The German Sprachraum; the countries and territories within Europe where German is or was the primary language.
- The principal state in this country, including
- A nominal medieval kingdom forming part of the Carolingian and Holy Roman Empires; (metonymic, now uncommon) the Holy Roman Empire in its entirety; (metonymic, obsolete) the Austrian Habsburg empire in its entirety.
- An empire formed by Prussia in 1871 with its capital at Berlin.
- A republic formed in 1918 with its capital at Berlin, inclusive of the Nazi regime who controlled it after 1933.
- The socialist republic formed in 1949 with its capital at Berlin, more often known in English as East Germany.
- A country in Central Europe, formed in 1949 as West Germany, with its provisional capital Bonn until 1990, when it incorporated East Germany. Official name: Federal Republic of Germany. Capital and largest city: Berlin.
- The various states in this country either over time or during periods of disunity and division, sometimes (inexact) inclusive of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria-Hungary's other holdings.
- A male given name.
- A surname.
- A township in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English Germanie, from Old English Germanie & Germania, from Latin Germānia (“land of the Germans”), from Germānī, a people living around and east of the Rhine first attested in the 1st century B.C.E. works of Julius Caesar and of uncertain etymology. The exonym was said by Strabo to derive from germānus (“close kin; genuine”), making it cognate with germane and german, but this seems unsupported. Attempts to derive it from Germanic or Celtic roots since the 18th century are all problematic, although it is perhaps cognate with the Old Irish gair (“neighbour”). Doublet of Germania. In reference to a medieval kingdom, English Germany is usually an anachronism using the Roman name to describe the area or calquing various Latin terms like rex Teutonicorum ("king of the Teutons"), which were often derogatory exonyms rather than formal titles.