Teutonic

of or relating to the ancient .
of, relating to, or characteristic of the or germans; german.
noting or pertaining to the northern european stock that includes the german, dutch, scandinavian, british, and related peoples.
(of languages) .
.
.
contemporary examples

the long, typically teutonic words that mean world cup t-tle have been all over the german papers for the last couple of days.
world cup primer joshua robinson june 11, 2010

the germans knew they had a special sea creature in their teutonic grip.
the amazing tale of paul the psychic octopus: germany’s world cup soothsayer emily shire july 11, 2014

theory, reality, and the imagination are all interwoven in this most teutonic of books.
this week’s hot reads the daily beast july 20, 2010

he conducted a 24-year-long war against sweden, poland, lithuania, and the teutonic knights, and lost.
russian history is on our side: putin will surely screw himself p. j. o’rourke may 10, 2014

yet by equating their engineering with teutonic rigor the germans have created the impression of an exclusive proprietary quality.
nationalism on four wheels clive irving october 17, 2014

historical examples

the teutonic races seem to be especially free from the taint.
encyclopaedia britannica, 11th edition, volume 16, slice 4 various

this was said in a guttural voice, the accent being quite teutonic.
melomaniacs james huneker

the next day he would say: ‘i come to bring a sword’–that was the n-ble german blood of a teutonic ancestor.
city of endless night milo hastings

observe the teutonic sense of proportion and nice forgiving temper.
victory joseph conrad

in the early annals of york numerous teutonic names are observable.
toronto of old henry scadding

adjective
characteristic of or relating to the german people: teutonic thoroughness
of or relating to the ancient teutons
(not used in linguistics) of or relating to the germanic languages
noun
an obsolete name for germanic
adj.

c.1600, “of or pertaining to the germanic languages and to peoples or tribes who speak or spoke them,” from latin teutonicus, from teutones, name of a tribe that inhabited coastal germany and devastated gaul 113-101 b.c.e., probably from a proto-germanic word related to old high german diot “people” (see dutch), from -teuta, the common pie word for “people” (cf. lithuanian tauto, oscan touto, old irish tuath, gothic þiuda, old english þeod).

used in english in anthropology to avoid the modern political -ssociation of german; but in this anthropoligical sense french uses germanique and german uses germanisch, because neither uses its form of german for the narrower national meaning (cf. french allemand, see alemanni; and german deutsch). in finnish, germany is saksa “land of the saxons.”

the teutonic knights (founded c.1191) were a military order of german knights formed for service in the holy land, but who later crusaded in then-pagan prussia and lithuania. the teutonic cross (1882) was the badge of the order. teuton “a german” is attested from 1833.