Search

an English person of the period before the Norman Conquest.
(def 1).
the original Germanic element in the English language.
plain and simple English, especially language that is blunt, monosyllabic, and often rude or vulgar.
a person whose native language is English.
a person of English descent.
(in the U.S.) a person of colonial descent or British origin.
of, relating to, or characteristic of the Anglo-Saxons.
of or relating to Anglo-Saxon.
English-speaking; British or American.
(of words, speech, or writing) blunt, monosyllabic, and often vulgar.
Contemporary Examples

When Viking invaders tore through 9th-century Europe, only one Anglo-Saxon leader was able to withstand their ferocious onslaught.
Scientists Find Remains of Alfred The Great Or King Edward The Elder Nico Hines January 16, 2014

Romney also showed diplomatic sense when he declined to play the Anglo-Saxon card earlier brandished by one of his aides.
Mitt Romney Using U.K. Visit to Raise Money Peter Popham July 25, 2012

According to an account in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written in the 9th century, that failed Viking raid was hardly a one-off.
Every Viking ‘Fact’ Is Wrong Nico Hines March 18, 2014

Our pension funds were buying their assets; the Anglo-Saxon doctrines of political economy were battering the French way.
The Ways of American Memory Fouad Ajami September 11, 2011

Elvis Presley was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, as is Bill Clinton, but they are not what anyone means by “Wasp.”
The Last of the Wasps Tad Friend September 26, 2009

Historical Examples

Of a truth the virtue of loyalty has not been the predominant feature of the Anglo-Saxon races.
‘I Believe’ and other essays Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

Our Anglo-Saxon inheritance descends upon us in times like these.
The Portygee Joseph Crosby Lincoln

The m is the m in the Anglo-Saxon words innema, &c.; whilst the -st is the common sign of the superlative.
A Handbook of the English Language Robert Gordon Latham

I am here because there is more of the Latin than the Anglo-Saxon in me.
The Strollers Frederic S. Isham

All this, I say, is worth telling to any intelligent person who believes in the haughty theory of Anglo-Saxon superiority.
All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton

noun
a member of any of the West Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) that settled in Britain from the 5th century ad and were dominant until the Norman conquest
the language of these tribes See Old English
any White person whose native language is English and whose cultural affiliations are those common to Britain and the US
(informal) plain blunt English, esp English containing taboo words
adjective
forming part of the Germanic element in Modern English: “forget” is an Anglo-Saxon word
of or relating to the Anglo-Saxons or the Old English language
of or relating to the White Protestant culture of Britain, Australia, and the US
(informal) (of English speech or writing) plain and blunt
of or relating to Britain and the US, esp their common legal, political, and commercial cultures, as compared to continental Europe

Old English Angli Saxones (plural), from Latin Anglo-Saxones, in which Anglo- is an adjective, thus literally “English Saxons,” as opposed to those of the Continent (now called “Old Saxons”). Properly in reference to the Saxons of ancient Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex.

I am a suthern man, I can not geste ‘rum, ram, ruf’ by letter. [Chaucer, “Parson’s Prologue and Tale”]

After the Norman-French invasion of 1066, the peoples of the island were distinguished as English and French, but after a few generations all were English, and Latin-speaking scribes, who knew and cared little about Germanic history, began to use Anglo-Saxones to refer to the pre-1066 inhabitants and their descendants. When interest in Old English writing revived c.1586, the word was extended to the language we now call Old English. It has been used rhetorically for “English” in an ethnological sense from 1832, and revisioned as Angle + Saxon.