Saxon
See also: saxon
English
Etymology
Partially from Middle English Saxe, Sax; from Old English *Seaxa (attested in plural Seaxan), and Saxoun, from Old French *Saxoun, Saxon (“Saxon”), from Late Latin Saxonem, accusative of Saxo (“a Saxon”), both from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“rock, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Cognates:
Cognate with Middle Low German sasse (“someone speaking Saxon, i.e. (Middle) Low German”), Old English Seaxa (“a Saxon”), Old High German Sahso (“a Saxon”), Icelandic Saxi (“a Saxon”), Estonian saks (“lord; German”), Finnish Saksa (“Germany”). Also cognate to Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”); more at sax.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsæksən/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -æksən
Noun
Saxon (plural Saxons)
- A member of an ancient West Germanic tribe that lived at the eastern North Sea coast and south of it.
- 1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford, volume 1, page 170:
- Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.
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- A native or inhabitant of Saxony.
- 2002, Jonathan Grix, Paul Cooke, East German distinctiveness in a unified Germany, page 142:
- [...] in West Germany Saxony and Saxons became synonymous with Ulbricht's Communist regime, [...]
- 2005, Judd Stitziel, Fashioning socialism: clothing, politics, and consumer culture, page 69:
- The film taught that socialist competition, through encouraging the collaboration of both men and women and Saxons and Berliners, could overcome the natural antagonism between male industrial mass production and female fashion.
- 2008, Eckbert Schulz-Schomburgk, From Leipzig to Venezuela, page 40:
- Dealing with people there was different from the way I dealt with Saxons, Berliners and others back in Leipzig.
- 2002, Jonathan Grix, Paul Cooke, East German distinctiveness in a unified Germany, page 142:
- (uncountable, US printing, rare, dated) A size of type between German and Norse, 2-point type.
- (Ireland, Wales, poetic) An English/British person.
- 1973, Sean McCarthy, Shanagolden (song):
- Then came the call to arms, love, the heather was aflame / Down from the silent mountains, the Saxon strangers came.
- 1973, Sean McCarthy, Shanagolden (song):
- A kind of rapidly spinning ground-based firework.
Derived terms
- Transylvanian Saxon
Related terms
- Anglo-Saxon
Descendants
- → Korean: 색슨 (saekseun)
- → Welsh: Sacson
Translations
member of Saxon tribe
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native or inhabitant of Saxony
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2-point type
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Proper noun
Saxon
- The language of the ancient Saxons.
- The dialect of modern High German spoken in Saxony.
- 2014, Marco Polo, Dresden Marco Polo Guide, →ISBN, page 21:
- Not everyone from the former GDR states are Saxons – and they do not all speak Saxon, […]
- 2014, Gaston Dorren, Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe, →ISBN:
- But does this mean that Germans nowadays speak Saxon? Far from it, in fact; Saxon is the most widely despised dialect in Germany, by a wide margin.
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- A surname.
- A male given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage or directly from the noun Saxon.
Related terms
(ancient Saxons' language):
- Anglo-Saxon
- West Saxon
- Semi-Saxon
- Scoto-Saxon
- Old Saxon (Old Low Saxon, Old Low German)
- Middle Saxon (Middle Low Saxon, Middle Low German)
- New Saxon (New Low Saxon, New Low German)
(High German dialect):
- Friso-Saxon
- Upper Saxon
- Transylvanian Saxon
Translations
language of the Saxons
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Adjective
Saxon (not comparable)
- Of or relating to the Saxons.
- Of or relating to Saxony.
- Of or relating to the Saxon language.
- (Ireland, Wales, poetic) Of or relating to England, typically as opposed to a Celtic nationality.
Related terms
- Anglo-Saxon
Translations
of Saxons, Saxony or Saxon language
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
- Saxonian
Anagrams
- Axson, Naxos, axons
French
Etymology
From Old French Saxon, borrowed from Late Latin Saxō, of West Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *sahsō.
Noun
Saxon m (plural Saxons, feminine Saxonne)
- Saxon (resident or native of Saxony) (male or of unspecified gender)
Further reading
- “Saxon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.